George was staring at her. And he was smiling. The little smile that just showed his teeth.

‘Come and have a cup of tea, dear, you look as white as a sheet. You’ve had a shock, I think.’

Kate was in the canteen having her lunch when she was told there was a phone call for her. She went to the phone on the wall by the door and picked it up.

‘Burrows here.’

‘Kate? It’s me, Dan.’

She felt a surge of apprehension as she heard the desolate tone of his voice. She pushed herself against the wall to try and muffle their conversation.

‘Look, Dan. About what happened. I swear I had no idea . . .’

He cut her off. ‘I know that. Let’s face it, Kate, I asked for it. Well, you can tell that . . . your friend, that it’s done. The CIB are off your back. I’ve been round to see Lizzy and told her that I’m going back to Anthea’s.’

‘And are you?’

‘Yeah. I rang her this morning. We’re going to have another try.’

It was a lie. Dan was going as far away from Grantley as possible. He didn’t want any reminders of Patrick Kelly.

‘I hope it works out for you, Dan, really I do.’

The line crackled, Dan had muttered something inaudible and Kate said his name down the phone line a couple of times before hanging up. She went back to her table and lit a cigarette. The canteen was filling up but the babble of voices and laughter went unnoticed by her.

She was still thinking about Patrick and what he had done. After Willy had dropped her off she had thought long and hard about Patrick and, much as she loved him, had admitted to herself he scared her.

The worst of it all was, scared of him, annoyed with him or anything else that she might feel, above all she wanted him. Desperately. It was this that scared her more than anything.

‘Penny for them?’

Caitlin’s voice was friendly.

‘I wouldn’t take money from an old man.’

He laughed in surprise. ‘Is everything all right with the other business?’

She nodded and Caitlin grinned.

‘Sure that Danny’s an eejit. Imagine doing that. Still, the blood testing is going well, so that’s something anyway.’

‘It’s certainly going better than anyone expected, that’s for sure.’

‘Did you hear about Spencer?’

Kate shook her head.

‘Well, like all the male officers he got a letter, same as everyone else. He’s doing his pieces! Thinks it’s a deliberate slur on his character.’

Caitlin roared with laughter, bringing many eyes to rest on him and Kate.

‘But it was what that Amanda said to him that’s really caused the trouble.’

Kate was intrigued. She smiled at him. ‘Go on then, tell me.’

Caitlin leant across the table and whispered: ‘She said she had read a secret psychologist’s report that stated the Grantley Ripper was a policeman in his late-twenties with a history of paranoia and violent and disruptive behaviour!’