‘She’s taken it hard, the young one. They all have.’

Kate couldn’t answer.

‘Have you any news about . . . about the man?’

Kate shook her head.

‘I’m here about Geraldine. Her body can now be released for burial.’

The woman sipped at her own coffee and placed the cup back into the saucer with trembling hands.

‘Thank God! I think that if we . . . well, if we could bury her like . . . it wouldn’t seem so bad. The thought of her . . .’

‘I know. Believe me, I know. Please don’t distress yourself.’

‘It’s funny,’ Kathleen’s voice had taken on a confiding tone, ‘I used to think that nothing really bad could happen to us. I’d see things on the news - like Suzy Lamplugh and murders and rapes - all sorts really. I’d think, How terrible, and then I’d go and cook my dinner or get ready for bingo and it would be out of my mind, you know? It’s amazing how little you really care until it happens to your own family. Oh, I would feel distressed for the victims and their family, but not really for any length of time . . . Now it’s with me every waking moment. I feel as if she’s near me sometimes, I feel her presence.’

Kate sat and let the woman unburden herself. She guessed rightly that she was the first person to cross the doorstep for weeks. After the initial shock wears off, people seem to give victims’ families a wide berth. Maybe they really do think people want to be left alone, or maybe they are frightened of getting too caught up. As if that kind of bad luck is catching.

‘I was shopping the other day in town and I met a girl who went to school with Geraldine. She had her children with her, two boys. Lovely little things. She said hello and we chatted for a while, and I thought after, Why couldn’t it have been you? Why did it have to be my Gerry?

‘I felt terrible later. Just terrible to wish on her and hers what we were going through. I mean, you can see for yourself how Mick is. He lives on tranquillisers. How could you wish that on somebody? It’s wicked.

‘But deep down inside I wish it had been anyone but my child. The older children are back at school but very withdrawn, and this little mite here - she doesn’t know if she’s coming or going. Keeps wanting to know when her mammy will be coming home. Maybe once she’s buried we’ll all come to terms with it a bit more. Say goodbye like. You know?’

Kate nodded, unable to swallow the large lump in the back of her throat. She took a gulp of coffee to try and right herself.

‘Well, if you get in touch with the undertakers, they can collect Geraldine’s remains.’