‘Yeah. It made me feel a little bit better about everything,’ said Paula. ‘I mean, it doesn’t change anything about Stacey and the kids but it’s … I dunno … I think there’s some consolation in it.’

‘Yes. Yes. Thank you for telling me.’

Paula shrugged. ‘I guess I wanted us to share the good things as well as all the painful stuff.’

Anita nodded and reached across the table to squeeze Paula’s hand.

Paula twisted around in her seat, trying to catch the eye of the bar staff. ‘I wonder where our food is? We ordered it ages ago. I’m starving all of a sudden.’

‘Hey, can we go back a step?’ Anita asked. ‘The guy died in your surgery?’

‘Well, he had a heart attack in the surgery but he actually died in the ambulance shortly after.’

‘So when this homicidal piece of shit started, you know’—Anita mimed a man clutching his chest in agony—‘you helped him?’

Paula nodded.

‘Jesus, Paula. You must’ve been tempted to stand back, not lift one of your highly qualified fingers to revive him and let that man die on the floor in front of you.’

‘Well, you tend to go onto automatic pilot and do the standard emergency stuff.’

‘Sure,’ said Anita, but she flipped her head, dubious. ‘Not sure I’d be so fucking nice.’

Paula gave in to an urge to push it—not to confess, but she wanted to poke a little, tease out what Anita would think. ‘Well … the thought did run through my mind.’

‘I bet. I mean, you could’ve found some ingenious way to kill the fucker outright, couldn’t you?’

Paula shrugged, playing it nonchalant, even though her heart was beating fast now. ‘I could.’

Anita leaned forward and gripped Paula’s hands, this time with jokey concern. ‘Are you telling me you murdered that guy?’

Paula nodded with exaggerated gravitas. ‘Yes, that’s what I really came here to tell you.’

‘Then, hurrah! Good on you!’ Anita laughed and then swerved into a jokingly worried tone. ‘Ooh, but hold on a minute … Is murdering patients—even the truly nasty ones—is that considered ideal practice under the Hippocratic oath, Dr Kaczmarek?’

‘No. I believe it’s generally frowned upon.’

‘I mean, it’s probably okay just this once. But don’t you go murdering any more patients.’

‘I won’t. Ian Ferguson’s my one and only. The process is too stressful.’

‘I can imagine. Although, now I think about it, let’s not be too hasty. There are a lot of deadshits cluttering up the world. You could go through your patient files, make a list of all the violent, dangerous men and then …’

Paula shook her head, mock earnest. ‘The connection to me would be too obvious. One murder per practice is all you can reasonably get away with.’

‘Point taken,’ said Anita.