She sighed and transferred the baby to the other side, forgetting to wind her in between. I didn’t say anything.

‘They have only let me go on police bail, so they can do further investigations. They kept asking me about my “relationship” with Michael Copeland and about that day. I admitted I was there, of course, but I just tried to get across what really happened.’

A silence fell and it made her look at me properly for the first time.

‘Why don’t you just say what’s on your mind, Elliott?’ Her voice was loud enough to make Livi jolt all four limbs at once, before she continued sucking.

‘I can only try and help if I know the truth, sweetheart,’ I said carefully. ‘I mean, everything.’ Then, ‘You know that I love you and will stand by you, whatever happens, don’t you?’

She gave a harsh, short laugh then, and got abruptly to her feet.

‘She’s only sucking for comfort now. You wind her for me. I’m going to bed.’

And with that she handed me our slightly startled daughter and began to climb the stairs.

SUMMER 2019

LIAM

The lack of sleep, after-effects of yesterday’s emotional tsunami, and the jet lag were conspiring to make this motorway drive much harder than it should have been, and it was taking every scrap of his concentration not to end up under the wheels of a juggernaut. The morning sun was high in a bright sky, but the colours were muted in comparison to what he was used to, like a filter over a lens.

It was possibly a good thing, he mused, as he clenched his buttocks in anticipation of overtaking a caravan he was fast approaching in the slow lane. Maybe he needed to spend time outside of his own head before doing whatever it was he was going to do when he got to his destination.

He reached for the bottle of water Mum had prepared for the journey and flipped back the lid with his teeth to take a drink. He gave a small involuntary smile as he noticed the pack of sandwiches she had also made, carefully checking he still liked ham and cheese as she did so.

Standing on the doorstep of his childhood home, hearing the terrible, banal, sounds of the station so nearby, he had been sweating, his head buzzing, and it had almost broken his resolve.

But it wasn’t his mother who answered the door. Instead, it was a young woman holding a wriggling toddler in her arms. She told Liam she had a forwarding address somewhere.

Soon he was heading back into Cambridge, weak with relief that he didn’t have to stay in Waterbeach.