Without the glass door, the cold air from outside made me shiver. But despite that I just stood there, feeling the tears well up as my mind carried me back to the previous evening. The sound of gunfire. The breaking glass. The figure in the garden shooting into the kitchen. Me on the floor with Aidan’s head in my lap and his blood on my hands and blouse.

When did it happen? I wondered. That precise moment when my pregnancy was terminated. When the baby died in the womb before I knew that he or she was even there.

‘Are you OK?’ Miller asked me, and I suddenly realised that my chest was pumping for oxygen.

I nodded. ‘It’s just a shock coming back to all this.’

‘I can imagine. But rest assured that when you next return it will be almost like it was before. The glass is being replaced later and we’ll give it a good clean.’

‘Thanks, Josh.’

I didn’t need to pick much up. A change of clothes, some toiletries and some things for Aidan. I only anticipated staying at my mother’s house for one night.

But as I packed my small case I wondered if it would be better not to return until Aidan was discharged from the hospital. The thought of sleeping here alone filled me with dread. It made me think about some of the victims of crime I had dealt with over the years. The ones who’d become mental wrecks after their homes had been violated.

Would Aidan and I ever be able to get over it and continue to live here? Cooking in the same kitchen that had been shot up like a saloon in a western movie? Walking over the spot where Aidan’s blood had been spilled? Relaxing in the garden from where the killer had launched her violent attack?

There were wider questions too. How would this impact on our lives in general? Our future together? Our ability to eventually find peace of mind?

And what if I was wrong to assume that I would conceive again? What would it do to me? To us? It was a thought too horrible to contemplate.

I felt my body start to shake so I sat on the bed and put my face in my hands. Just then my mobile phone rang, making me jump.

It was DCS Drummond, calling to see how I was and to update me.

I told him about Aidan’s condition and said I was feeling better in myself.

‘The doctor said I was sick because of the shock,’ I lied.

He informed me that the woman who had shot him was still on the loose. It made me angry. Scared. I felt blood pounding behind my eyes.

‘We need to find her, guv,’ I said.