‘Bless you.’ She gingerly lifted the box out and discovered with relief that there was a lighter tucked inside it, so she didn’t have to put her fingers in the pocket again. ‘I don’t smoke. I mean, I have one in a blue moon.’ She lit it and inhaled, handing the box back. ‘Thank you so much.’

Clenching the cigarette between her lips, balancing her bag on one lifted knee, Sasha tried to dig out her phone again, but the smoke kept getting in her eyes.

‘Do you mind holding this?’ she asked the old woman, who had finished her own fag. The woman took it and held it away from her body as if she disapproved of smoking, and Sasha finally managed to find her phone. ‘I need to make a quick call.’

She turned away to phone Jeremy Weston’s number. If he was home, she would make up some kind of excuse about why she was calling.

Someone picked up at the other end, but Sasha didn’t hear anything. ‘Hello?’

‘Can I help you?’ answered a woman’s voice.

‘Is that Mrs Weston? Bethany?’

‘No.’

Sasha waited for the voice to elaborate, but it didn’t. ‘Who is this, please?’

‘I’m the housekeeper,’ said the old woman.

‘Is Bethany there?’

‘I’m afraid the lady is away.’

‘Do you know when she’ll be—’

‘She’s away,’ interrupted the voice. ‘For the weekend. Please call back next week.’

‘Then can I speak to Jeremy West—’

‘He’s not here.’

Sasha listened to the dead air of the broken connection. The lady, she thought, recognizing the phrase in a different context. It was how Rachel Weston had described Bethany in the notebook they had found beneath the floorboards at the bail hostel. Sasha had thought Rachel used the word as an old-fashioned alternative to woman because she didn’t recognize Bethany, but maybe she meant it in a more formal way, as in the lady of the house.

‘Did you want this?’ asked the patient, dragging on the nearly finished ciggie.

Sasha crinkled her nose. ‘You have it.’

When she got back to the cubicle, her daughter was sitting in a wheelchair, ready to be discharged. Sasha told Kev, ‘Do you mind taking Angel home, something’s come up.’

‘What, is it an emergency?’

She thought about it. ‘Something needs my attention.’

He was used to the demands of her job, and familiar with the set look on her face, but this morning Kev said quietly, ‘Angel really needs your support right now. Whatever she says otherwise, she wants you to be with her. This, what’s happened to our daughter, is the most important thing.’

‘Yes, it is, and she’s going to get all my love and attention. I’ve got to check something, or I won’t stop thinking about it. I’ll come straight home after that.’

Kev sighed. ‘Ian slash Duncan understands.’