‘Not surprising, really.’ Jo would have liked to have asked what the police had said. It wasn’t that she wanted the salacious details, more she wanted to watch Allison’s face as she spoke. ‘It must have been awful.’ It was giving her an opening if she wanted to speak. Annoyingly, it didn’t work. She saw Allison’s expression harden. Any moment now she was going to ask Jo to leave. Putting her hands flat on the table, she pushed to her feet. ‘You look done in. How about you sit and relax, and I make us some coffee?’

Allison held a hand up… to argue or stop Jo, she wasn’t sure.

She caught the hand in hers and looked down into her startled eyes. ‘I insist. It’s what friends are for.’ She swept from the room without another word, almost giggling to herself at her risky, and successful, strategy. Luckily, she didn’t give in to amusement. Only a second later, she heard Allison’s footsteps and turned to see her standing in the doorway.

‘You’ll never find anything. The cupboards are chock-a-block.’

Jo pointed to the kettle. ‘I can do that at least.’

Allison opened the nearest cupboard door. Even from where Jo was standing with water streaming into the kettle, she could see the interior. Not so crammed she couldn’t see the jar of instant coffee.

‘D’you need sugar?’

‘No, ta.’ Jo flicked the switch on the kettle and leaned back against the counter, watching as Allison opened the next cupboard, removed two cups, and spooned coffee into each. Was there was a fancy coffee machine hidden behind one of the other doors? Jo would’ve liked a chance to snoop.

With nowhere to sit in the galley kitchen, she followed Allison from the room. Not into the far more comfortable living room where she might have relaxed, but back into the awful, depressing dining room. It wasn’t a room conducive to conversation, but she wasn’t one to give up easily. ‘I suppose there’ll be an investigation.’

‘Yes.’

A stubbornness Jo didn’t realise she possessed took hold and she persevered. ‘You’re going to need all the support you can get. This is the time for friends to rally around.’ She knew she was on firm footing with this comment, had followed Allison for long enough to know there was nobody she was close to. There had been transitory connections in university, but none had lasted. She, like Jo, was a solitary soul. But Allison would need someone now, someone to hang on to while she draped herself in widow’s weeds, and here was Jo, waiting to be her bestie. ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’

‘That’s very kind of you,’ Allison said with a slight inclination of her head.

Very bloody condescending. Jo kept a sympathetic expression in place by sheer force of will.