Oh. Okay then. ‘I grew up in Willesden. Then moved out of London. I came back to the Smoke after I became a police officer. More opportunities down here. When I became an undercover, I went back up north again between jobs. Safer.’

‘You didn’t say anything about your parents.’

That level tone of hers. The way her eyes were fixed on his face. He felt as if he was being interviewed about his part in some unspecified crime. He took a sip of wine and carefully smiled. ‘Are you analysing me?’

‘You know all about me. You were briefed about my family. If you don’t want to talk about—’

‘No. It’s just strange that someone would want to know.’

‘Why are you being so weird?’ she said suddenly.

‘What?’

‘This is a date, right? We’re on a date. I was making small talk, asking about stuff that’s not relevant to our jobs. Like your home, your mum, your dad. But you’re getting all nervous. Haven’t you been on many dates?’

He was now actually glaring at her. ‘No, honestly. You?’

‘Almost zero.’

‘Because we both…’ He made a gesture that attempted to include a ton of sadness and horror and all the world.

‘We both…’ She made the gesture back at him. ‘Yeah. Thought so.’

He found he was smiling now and, amazingly, she was smiling back. With her tooth biting her bottom lip, just a notch. There was still something reserved about her, though; maybe there always would be. The way she’d underlined the word dad back there, as if seeing if that would get a reaction – had that been an indication that she suspected what he was really up to here, that she knew Costain would have found talking about her dad and his current situation difficult right now, because those were pointers towards what he was secretly planning?

It was entirely possible that she did suspect he was up to something. She was vastly intelligent, used to picking signal out of noise. Okay then. He was used to the possibility of those around him being suspicious of him when he was undercover.

It dawned on him that he’d been looking at her for a long time, and she’d accepted that calmly, looking straight back at him as if they were both sizing up the enemy.