‘I can see you in there.’ He pressed his face and hands to the window, leaving finger smears and the condensation of his hot breath on the glass. ‘Let me in, Con, please.’

Sasha jumped out of sight behind the curtain and tugged Connie with her. ‘What on earth is he doing here?’

‘Connie.’ Barry banged on the glass. ‘Give me a chance, doll. I love you!’

‘He’s going to smash the window, Con.’

‘It’s over, Barry,’ Connie shouted. ‘Just leave me alone.’

‘Get rid of him, please,’ Sasha hissed at her sister.

Barry took a bottle of Scotch from his jacket pocket to swig from it. He was clearly drunk, which was no surprise to Sasha, who could count on one hand the number of times she had met him when he was sober. She couldn’t understand what her sister ever saw in the guy. She had never liked him, Kev had never liked him, and her parents only tolerated him. Despite considering himself to be Southend’s own Richard Branson, Barry never had a penny to his name; he was always ducking and diving. Every month he launched some questionable new business: selling bits of plastic tat on the seafront, investing in a burger van – that enterprise was quickly closed down by the hygiene people – and even becoming a sports agent. And every time he tried to get a new scheme off the ground, he approached Sasha and Kev and her parents with another ‘once in a lifetime investment opportunity’, or got Connie to do it for him. Once bitten, twice shy, they learned very quickly that throwing a bagful of tenners off the end of Southend pier would probably get them a better return on their investment.

But Connie and Barry’s sudden split was a shock. Sasha genuinely believed they were in it for the long haul, and she didn’t understand it at all. For all their screaming arguments, they were devoted to each other. And despite her distaste for Barry, there was another reason Sasha wished dearly that he and Con were still together – her sister wouldn’t have got her claws into Vaughn.

Her DCI came into the room with Kev and her parents to see what the commotion was.

‘What a waster that man is.’ Alec gulped from his can of lager. ‘He’s never worked a day in his life.’

Connie looked sharply at her father.

‘I can see you all.’ Barry stood at the window with his hands pressed together, as if in prayer. ‘Please, Con, don’t end it like this, I’m begging you, talk to me.’

‘He’s making a scene,’ said Ursula.

‘Go away, Barry,’ Connie shouted. ‘You’re embarrassing yourself.’

‘Is that your ex?’ Vaughn asked Connie quietly.

Barry cupped his hands against the pane to get a better look at Vaughn, and his bottle banged against the glass. ‘Is that him, Con? Is that the guy you’re with, the pig?’