‘I’ve heard about men like you. You should come out into the open. It’s not a crime any more. They call it coming out of the wardrobe. I’ll bill you for my time in the morning.’

With that she went down the stairs to call a cab.

Patrick lay against the pillows. He could still smell her perfume.

He began to laugh again at her words. Then, abruptly, he stopped laughing.

In reality, she could have been his Mandy. Mandy had had a lot more savvy, he knew that, but she was the same age. What would he have thought if he had found out his daughter was sleeping with a man over twenty years her senior? And not for love either, but for a few quid and a good time.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers against them, trying to blot out the image of those breasts. He felt the loneliness as it welled up inside. He should have Kate beside him. But after what had happened between them? He knew that she had thought the worst of him and admitted to himself that he was glad now that Markham had died through another’s means. He was glad that he was not the cause of the man’s death.

He had hoped against hope that Kate would have rung him up when she heard the news and said she was sorry. Then they could have got back on their old footing. But nothing. Not a word. And being the kind of man he was, he had had too much pride to get in touch with her.

What she had said to him had hurt because it was true. She had sussed him out all right. It was only after he knew Markham was dead, when the euphoria had worn off, that he’d realised that revenge is not as sweet as you first imagine. It had come out in all the papers about the man’s terrible childhood. His sister in America had spilled the beans. Wanting to set the record straight, she said.

Kelly had read the stories and felt a funny kind of sorrow for the man. He was sick in the head. But he had already known that, hadn’t he? When he was planning to kill him.

He shifted uneasily in the bed. Kate had been right. The man had needed help. He wished that she was here beside him. He had wanted Kate beside him from the minute he had seen her. He admitted that to himself now.

What was it his old mum used to say?

‘God pays back debts without money.’

Well, both he and George Markham had more than paid the price.

Kate and Amanda looked at each other as the film ended and both started to laugh through their tears. Phil stood up and put on the overhead light.

‘You women amaze me. Imagine watching something that makes you sad!’

‘Oh, Phil! That was a lovely film.’