Back in the lobby, she briefed the CSI team, then excused herself and made her way to the West Block doors. Part of her knew there wouldn’t be a response to Ruby’s buzzer, so when there was not, she was only half devastated. But of course, it was party season. There had been a new group of friends recently, but Jo didn’t know the first thing about them, just a passing comment back in October, the last time she and Ruby had spoken. “Any boyfriend potential?” she’d asked. Ruby had made a strange noise and said, “One of them’s a guy, but it’s complicated.” Joanna had so many questions about that, but at the time it hadn’t been right somehow to interrogate her. Complicated usually meant bad news. Maybe Ruby was with the new friends now.

Joanna wondered how everything had gone so very wrong. Right up until the day of the fight, she’d thought the family, unconventional though it may have been, was functioning okay. Throughout Ruby’s childhood everything had been fine. She’d seemed well-adjusted—happy even. It was easier for Jo not to be there, to listen to Ruby call her mother Mum, and not her, but she thought she was making things better for everyone by staying away. She’d missed so much and hidden how much it hurt; she’d assumed her own issues were the only fallout from the decision taken—while she was still a child herself—with the best intentions for everyone involved. How wrong she’d been about so many things.

Everything had come to a head on Christmas Day. Jo walked into the living room and found her mother sitting with a glass in her hand.

“Where’s Ruby?” Jo asked. Dad was in the kitchen, banging tins and running the tap.

Marianne took a long sip. The glass was full of ice and clear liquid, but Joanna did not assume it was water. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was 11:52. Close enough to lunchtime for a first drink, she supposed.

“She’s sulking,” said Marianne, and from her voice Jo knew instantly that the half-finished drink in her mother’s hand was far from the first of the day. She walked out of the room to find Ruby sitting on the stairs, her lips set in a thin line.

“She’s been drinking since breakfast,” hissed Ruby.

“Did you have a fight?” asked Joanna.

Ruby shook her head. “I just … can’t deal with it today.” She went back up to her room, making it clear she didn’t want Joanna to follow.