‘Fuck this!’ Joseph’s voice reverberated around the tiny bathroom. George looked at his brother, amazed.

Joseph had sworn in front of their mother!

Nancy had been on all fours on the floor. Before she had time to think what she was doing she was standing up of her own accord and staring down at her eldest son, hands on ample hips.

‘What did you just say?’

George pulled himself from the floor and sat on the edge of the bath, giggling nervously. He was enjoying himself. Joseph lay on the floor. His arm was killing him where his mother’s weight had nearly wrenched it out of its socket.

‘What’s going on up there? What’s all the crashing about?’

Elaine’s voice, which could outshout Nancy Markham’s on her better days, carried up the stairs and into the bathroom. George heard the thud of her slippers coming upstairs.

‘I said, what did you say Joseph Markowitz? Answer me!’

Elaine stared into the bathroom in bewilderment. She saw her mother-in-law prod Joseph’s thigh with her foot.

‘I’m sorry, Mother. It just slipped out.’

Nancy, realising that she was standing up of her own accord, held her chest, her eyes rolling up into her head.

‘Oh, George, help me. I’m going to faint . . .’

As she crashed to the floor once more, Joseph did a roll that would have made a paratrooper proud; Elaine watched the whole charade with wide eyes.

‘Listen here, George Markham, this is the last time! Do you hear me?’ Elaine’s voice had risen fifteen decibels louder than usual.

‘Next year, we are going away for Christmas. Now pick your bloody mother up and get her out of my house. I’ve had enough!’

Nancy’s and Joseph’s mouths both opened simultaneously, but snapped shut as they looked at George. He was still sitting on the edge of the bath and laughing his head off, tears running down his face, which he wiped now and then with the back of his hand.

Lily, who had come up to see what all the noise was about, stared around her in amazement. Her mother had warned her about marrying into the Markham family and she had been right.

They were funny. Not funny ha-ha, but funny peculiar.

When Kate received the call saying that Mandy Kelly had died, she drove straight to the hospital. Now she had two murders to contend with. When she saw Patrick Kelly, she was shocked. That he had taken the death badly was hardly surprising, but he looked positively old. Old and haggard.

She went to him. He was still holding his daughter’s body in his arms and the doctors and nurses could not persuade him to leave the bedside. The body had to be put on ice, and soon. Kate motioned for everyone to move away and went to him.