‘First tell me about the other shooting,’ I said. ‘Was that her?’

Drummond nodded. ‘Almost certainly. A woman came off her motorcycle after jumping a red light. Her description matches the one you gave. She was wearing a dark leather suit and woollen hat. She wasn’t badly injured and as she tried to leave the scene a police patrol car pulled up. She produced a pistol and shot both of them.’

I shook my head. ‘Oh Jesus.’

‘One officer was declared dead at the scene,’ Drummond said. ‘He was shot in the chest. The other was shot in the stomach and is receiving treatment in this very hospital.’

I tried to speak but a sob lodged in my throat.

Drummond continued. ‘We’ll be comparing the bullets from Aidan and the officers. And we’ll cross check-them with those taken from Dave Prentiss and Detective Nash’s wife.’

‘What about the street camera footage from Clapham?’ I said. ‘That looked like a man in an overcoat.’

‘It was obviously a disguise,’ he said. ‘But it had us all fooled.’

I then told them what had happened at the house. I stayed sitting as I spoke, all hunched up, my hands held tightly in my lap.

When I was finished, Detective Flynn filled in some of the gaps.

‘We suspect the noise that alerted you to an intruder in the garden was the sound of her knocking over some terracotta pots that were piled against the back wall,’ he said. ‘The patio light you switched on was extinguished by a bullet. We believe she then fired blindly into the kitchen five or six times. One of the bullets struck your partner.’

He added that so far no witnesses had come forward to say they had seen the woman flee along the alley.

‘The motorcycle must have been parked close by,’ he said. ‘But in her panic to get away she caused an accident on the High Road. We’ll hopefully have some CCTV footage pretty soon.’

He also told me that my pistol had been retrieved at the scene.

‘I’d be dead now if I hadn’t had it with me,’ I said. ‘I’m assuming the bitch didn’t expect me to be armed.’

There were more questions I wanted to ask but just then the stomach pain I had experienced earlier returned with a vengeance. This time accompanied by a sudden bout of nausea. I had to excuse myself and rush to the loo, and Drummond said he would call me later.

In the toilet I shut myself in a cubicle and threw up into the basin. That was bad enough, but when I sat down to relieve myself I was in for another shock.

It wasn’t just pee that poured out of me. There was also a disturbing amount of blood.

‘I’m afraid you’ve had an early-stage miscarriage, Miss Jefferson.’