Patrick lit one for her and continued. ‘Well, if I was to go and see him like, he might be encouraged to change his story, admit he was just trying to cause his ex-wife a bit of aggravation.’

Kate drew on the cigarette and looked into Patrick’s eyes. ‘You wouldn’t hurt him?’

Patrick held out his arms in a gesture of denial. ‘As if I would!’

Kate was tempted, sorely tempted, but a little part of her was not sure. She could be condoning an act of violence. Because for all Patrick’s charade of being the big benevolent boyfriend, if he had to give Dan a slap to achieve his ends he wouldn’t even give it a second thought.

‘Let me think about it, Pat.’

‘What’s to think about? I go see him, give him the bad news and he shits himself and puts his hands up to the CIB. Sweet as a nut.’

‘Have you got an answer for everything, Pat? A violent answer to everything?’

Her voice was flat and that was not wasted on him. ‘Listen, Kate, we’ve got a lot going for us, and I don’t want that geek of a husband . . .’

‘Ex-husband, Pat.’

‘All the better, ex-husband, to bugger it all up. Where there’s a villain there’ll always be an Old Bill. Our kind of partnership goes back to the start of skulduggery, my love. You know in your heart that you’re not doing anything wrong. We are friends and lovers. I’m not asking you to tell me the secrets of the Serious Crime Squad. I’m not asking you to tap out on your little computer what they’re trying to fit me up with next. We just enjoy each other’s company.

‘I love you, Kate, and I’m trying to help you that’s all. I know that if you lost your job over me, we’d be finished for good. Because you’d always hold it against me.’

‘We could finish it now.’

Patrick frowned. He was getting annoyed. He’d thought she felt a bit more for him than this.

‘Well, that’s entirely up to you, darlin’!’

Kate put her cigarette out and went to him. She sat on the arm of his chair and touched the lines of his face.

‘I didn’t really mean that, Pat, it was unfair.’

She could no more leave him now than she could walk past an injured child on the street. He was a part of her, a big part. But to keep him she had to let him do something that went against the grain.

‘Let me think about it, please. Give me a couple of days?’

Patrick saw the confusion in her eyes and grasped her hand in his.

‘I don’t want to lose you, Katie. You’ve come to mean an awful lot to me.’

She kissed the top of his dark head.

‘Same here.’

He pulled her on to his lap and kissed her hard. He wanted her to have something else to think about as well, just in case she forgot for a second what she would be giving up.