Diane remained staring at the door as it slammed behind Angie. She didn’t know what else to think, except that she’d never got a chance to ask who the man was she’d seen on the corner of the street.

Ben Cooper felt as though he’d been walking through hospital corridors for half an hour. He was sure he’d turned left at a nurses’ station a hundred yards back, yet here was another one that looked exactly the same. Had hospitals always been so anonymous, or was it just a result of the latest improvements at Edendale General?

And then, in the corridor ahead, he saw a familiar figure wearing worn denim jeans and a thick sweater with holes at the elbows. Cooper smiled with relief. His brother Matt looked totally out of place in a hospital. For a start, Matt was built on a different scale to the nurses who passed him. His hands and shoulders looked awkward and too big, as if he might break anything fragile he came near. He wasn’t a man you’d want to let loose among hypodermic needles and intravenous drips.

He also looked far too healthy to be inside a hospital, even as a visitor. Constant exposure to the sun and weather had given a deep, earthy colouring to his skin that contrasted with the clinical white, the pale pastels of the newly painted walls.

Matt looked up and began to move towards him. He put his arm round his brother’s shoulder, a rare gesture of affection that made Ben’s heart lurch with apprehension.

‘I’ve spoken to the doctor,’ said Matt. ‘Not the top man, just some houseman or whatever they call them. Come down to the waiting room. We can get a cup of tea.’

‘I want to see Mum.’

‘She’s asleep, Ben. They say she needs to rest. Actually, I think they gave her something to put her out.’

‘Matt –’

‘Come on, it’s this way. I think the WI still do a canteen for visitors, so the tea should be all right.’

Ben felt he was being swept along by his brother, dragged in his wake. Almost the way it had been with their father for so many years.

‘Matt, never mind the tea. I need to know how Mum is now. What happened?’

Instead of answering, Matt began to move along the corridor again. He was a couple of inches taller than his brother, and much heavier. Ben knew it was pointless trying to dig in his heels, and tried to keep up with his brother’s stride instead. He felt a warm flush of resentment starting, a rush of anger that he knew was born of fear.

‘Tea,’ said Matt. ‘And then I’ll tell you everything I know.’

Matt Cooper walked carefully back across the hospital cafeteria balancing two cups of coffee. He looked terrified of spilling liquid on the polished vinyl tiles, in case someone slipped and broke a leg. An accident in a hospital would seem worse than one that happened anywhere else, somehow.