‘You really do have a knack for saying the right thing at the right time,’ she said.

‘Well at least it’s put a smile on your face. Now is there anything else I can say or do to cheer you up?’

She thought about it for a moment and said, ‘You can try to switch off work mode and then after you’ve eaten you can come into the living room and listen to what I’ve decided to do with the baby’s room. How does that sound?’

He grinned. ‘It sounds like the perfect way to spend an evening.’

She tapped his hand again. ‘That’s exactly what I hoped you would say.’

James felt he did a good job of feigning interest in what Annie showed him. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the colours and the furniture that would bring their baby’s bedroom to life, it was simply that his thoughts were so scattered he found it hard to concentrate. But at least it helped get rid of the lead weight in his chest.

Annie was pleased that he agreed with all of her choices and he didn’t balk when she told him how much it was going to cost.

‘Our baby will be worth it,’ he said, and then gave her a long, lingering kiss.

It made him realise yet again just how big an impact the job had on his private life. It was never easy to wind down and free himself from the distraction of an ongoing case.

Thankfully, despite everything that had happened, including the threats from Andrew Sullivan, their relationship remained strong. He just hoped that would never change.

They went to bed early after deciding not to see the New Year in at midnight. They were both too tired and so were anxious to get as much sleep as possible. But before going upstairs, James called The Royal Lancaster Infirmary again to check on William Nash’s condition. He was glad to hear that he was continuing to improve. The news did not make it any easier for him to sleep, though, and he had another rough night.

A riot of images filled his mind as he tried to fall asleep and made him sweat. There was Nash crashing his van into the wall. The baby’s skeletal remains in the steel box. The bodies of the Bateman family on the floor at Oaktree Farm. The bloody shoeprints. The peephole in the wall. And the unfinished suicide note that raised more questions than it answered.

In sleep there was no peace either. He had a graphic nightmare in which Andrew Sullivan found his way into their home armed with a revolver which he pointed at Annie.

She screamed for him not to pull the trigger, but he did anyway and there was a loud bang, which was when James woke up.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

Monday January 1st