Kate sat down and picked up her drink again.

‘Just a friend is he? Well, if you want my advice, I’d say make him more than a friend, if you get my meaning. Men like that don’t grow on trees.’

‘He owns massage parlours, Mum.’

Evelyn O’Dowd had her own set of principles, which she changed and updated depending on the situation.

‘Well, we can’t all be policemen can we? He’s a good kind man by the looks of him. You take my advice and grab him quick, then you can show him what he’s doing wrong.’

Kate sipped her drink.

‘If the Chief Constable knew that I was seeing Patrick, all hell would break loose.’

Kate didn’t know that the Chief Constable knew all about her and Kelly. Patrick Kelly and Frederick Flowers went back a long way. They were much closer than anyone knew - except the two of them, and they certainly wouldn’t be telling anyone.

Evelyn bridled in her chair.

‘Well, in that case you just refer him to me, young lady. What you do when you’re out of that station is none of his business.’

If Kate hadn’t had so much on her mind she would have laughed at her mother’s scandalised voice.

‘It’s not like that, Mum, and you know it. Patrick’s a nice man, you’re right there, but he is also just on the verge of being a criminal.’

‘I’m on the verge of being one meself, child, if I had the name of that person who gave Lizzy the drugs I’d scalp the face off them.’

Both women were silent.

‘Listen to me, Katie. If you like this man, and you’re happy seeing him, then you do what you want. No matter what your Chief Constable or Dan, or me or Lizzy or even King Street Charlie feels. You only live once. Live your life how you want. Before you know it you’ll be old. Old as me. And when you get to my age you get a different perspective on life. Suddenly, every day seems just that little bit shorter. You feel the ache coming in your bones. You know that the best, most fruitful part of your life is over. I read once that when people get old and go senile, they go back to a time in their life when they were useful. To when they had young children, and a husband coming home from work. Meals to prepare. Maybe a little job as well. I could understand them wanting to escape back to a time when they were “needed”. Maybe because my days of being needed are nearly over.’

Kate slipped off her chair and knelt in front of her mother.

‘I’ll always need you, Mam.’ At the word mam, Evelyn pulled her daughter into her arms, memories flooding back to her. Kate and her brother had both called her mam as children.