‘Their mother is dead… look, it’s a lot to get your heads around so I’ll leave it at that for now. In the meantime, can I ask you to pay attention to what Kenny does or says. If he says anything that reveals he already knew the woman before she called to the house last week or anything you think might help the investigation, give us a call on this number.’

She hands Tom a card, another card. I think we have three of them already.

‘Okay.’ He takes the card and glances at it. I’m sitting here not wanting the detective to leave already. Why doesn’t she question Kenny again instead of asking us to spy on him? Or listen and watch carefully as she puts it.

‘Is she still in custody?’ I ask, standing up along with everyone else.

‘No, she left the station two hours ago.’

‘But…’ My heart stops. ‘So she’s back out on the street?’

Burke straightens her back and moves away from the chair. ‘We have no reason to hold her.’

‘I thought she killed the woman… her sister, isn’t it?’ I’m getting flustered now and losing my ability to remember the details.

‘These are only allegations, we have no evidence yet, no reason to hold her.’

‘What about stalking our house? What about that? What if she comes back?’

‘She shouldn’t come back we’ve made that very clear to her. If she does, you have the number.’ The two cops are moving into the hallway now as a file load of questions build up in my head.

When the door closes behind them, I grab Tom’s arm before he goes inside and tells the boys I’m home. ‘Tom.’

‘Ye.’

‘Well… can you tell?’

‘Tell what Sally?’

‘Which sister you were with?’

‘No, that was seventeen years ago on a drunken night in a dark alleyway, I can barely remember what I looked like.’

A dark alleyway, how fucking romantic. ‘And you never saw her afterwards.’

‘No, Sal, just that one night… I’m sure she told me her name earlier on in the club, the whole team were the centre of attention after winning the championship. The girls were all over us and…’

‘Well, she certainly remembered your name.’

It wouldn’t have been hard to track Tom down. The team photos were all over the Evening Herald, their names, the club. But why didn’t she contact him when she found out she was pregnant? Unless she didn’t want him to know. So why now?

‘Do you think you should have a word with Kenny, see what you can find out?’

‘I’m not sure, Sal, I think we should leave it to the police.’ He pushes open the door and calls out to the boys. ‘Mam’s home.’

That’s one way to end the conversation.