‘I’ve had Willy open a bottle of Barolo. How about a glass?’

Kate nodded and Patrick went from the room. She sat in the chair with her hands on the arms. Another thing she admired about Patrick - there were no televisions to be seen anywhere although she knew that the big oak cabinet along the wall beside her housed a thirty-two-inch state of the art flat screen TV. Kate was not a television watcher, but a reader. That was her chosen form of relaxation. Patrick was the same. In fact, they had a lot in common. One part of her was frightened by Patrick; she knew a lot about him, and not all of it good. But when she was with him, near him, she could forgive him anything. Anything at all. She knew that she made excuses for him to herself.

He came back into the room with the bottle and two crystal glasses. He poured them both a drink and sat on the floor by Kate’s chair.

‘This is lovely, Kate. It’s good to have a woman about the house again.’

‘What about Mrs Manners?’

Patrick sipped his wine.

‘Mrs Manners is a great cook and a lovely old dear, but she don’t exactly turn me on, know what I mean?’

She looked down into his rugged face and felt a tightening in her stomach.

She really wanted this man.

‘How’s it going with the case?’ His voice was sombre now.

Kate felt her good mood begin to fade.

‘I take it there’s still nothing to go on?’

She shook her head.

‘We’re doing our best, but as I said before, Pat, with someone like this, well, it’s a hard slog.’

Patrick knelt in front of her and sipped his wine. ‘What was this thing you was going on about before? DNA.’

‘Oh, genetic fingerprinting. That’s just about all we have. The trouble is no one will authorise all the money it would cost to give over five thousand men a blood test. But it’s been done before, in Enderby in Leicestershire. In eighty-three, I think it was.’

‘Did it work?’

Kate nodded. ‘Yes, it did actually.’

Both of them were quiet and Patrick sat back on the floor. They sipped their wine in silence. It was an amiable silence. This was another thing that attracted Kate to Patrick. She could sit with him without saying a word. With Dan, if there had been a silence it was loaded. With Patrick it was natural. He stood up and took the glass from her. Pulling her from the chair he kissed her, long and hard.

‘Come to bed with me, Kate, I really want you.’