‘Oh,’ Rhona suddenly remembered. ‘I have to go to a dinner.’

‘A dinner? Where?’ Chrissy demanded.

‘It’s the university dinner for participants on the forensic course,’ Rhona explained.

Chrissy assumed an amazed expression. ‘You never mentioned it before.’

‘I wasn’t going, then Dr Walker asked if I’d go along to keep him company.’

‘You’re going on a date with Dr Walker?’ Chrissy’s voice rose at the end to a surprised squeak.

‘It’s not a date,’ Rhona said, knowing it sounded like one.

Chrissy gave her one of her all-knowing smiles. ‘Okay. Whatever you say.’

Rhona, realizing there was no winning this one, headed for the shower.

21

‘You have a visitor,’ Janice informed McNab as he approached his desk.

‘What visitor?’ McNab said, made immediately suspicious by the look on Janice’s face.

‘She’s with the boss.’

‘Who the hell is it?’ McNab said, now aware that everyone in the room was interested in their interchange. Maybe even amused by it.

‘The boss says you’re to go right in,’ Janice told him.

McNab contemplated continuing his attempt to extract more information about the surprise visitor, then decided the quickest way to find out who ‘she’ was, was to take a look.

Aware that at least a dozen pairs of eyes were on his back, he approached the door in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner, only to hear the words, ‘Come in, Detective Sergeant,’ before he could even knock.

When the door swung open, McNab was rewarded with the sight of someone he hadn’t thought to ever see again, even though he’d just been thinking about her earlier.

Emma was taller than he remembered, but the smile was just as bright.

‘Michael,’ she said in delight. ‘Michael Joseph McNab.’ She laughed, reminding McNab of the moment he’d revealed his real name in order to try and put her younger self at ease.

McNab thought she might run to hug him and was momentarily concerned at the possibility, but she didn’t. Instead, she came forward and offered her hand in a grown-up gesture. The nine-year-old Emma Watson he remembered was on her way to becoming a teenager.

‘Detective Sergeant McNab.’ Her mother, Claire, also in the room, advanced with an equally welcoming look. ‘It’s so good to see you again. You’re wondering why we’re here,’ Claire answered McNab’s bemused look.

McNab glanced at the boss, wondering if DI Wilson already knew the answer to that.

His superior officer was on his feet. ‘I’ll leave you three to talk. It was good to meet you again, Ms Watson, and you, Emma.’

McNab tried to catch the boss’s eye on his way out, wondering what his take was on all this, but DI Wilson’s expression suggested it was up to his detective sergeant now.

Once the door was closed – and McNab could only imagine the faces outside at the emergence of the boss – Claire said, ‘Emma has something she wants to talk to you about, Detective Sergeant.’ Her expression suggested she wasn’t totally comfortable with what Emma was about to say but had been prevailed upon to come to the police station by her determined daughter.