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.

‘Well, Kate, I’ll be here for you for as long as you want me. The same for Lizzy, God love her. I could cheerfully cut the legs from her, but I’ll always love her. Mary Ann that she is.’

Doctor Plumfield surveyed Kate and Evelyn as they sat in front of him. Kate had asked for another day of leave to try and get her family affairs sorted out. It had been granted grudgingly and she knew she was on thin ice as far as her superiors were concerned. Sympathetic they may be, but at the end of the day she was a DI and should put her work first. Particularly a murder investigation.

Lizzy’s attempted suicide had been whispered around the station by now, she was sure.

Plumfield was young, and Kate thought he looked more like a social worker than a psychiatrist. He wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a rugby shirt. His hair was thinning on top but he had a small ponytail at the back. His fingers were tobacco-stained as he fiddled with a biro.