‘Of course.’

‘How long would you need?’

‘A couple of hours, at a guess.’

‘Let’s say we meet at six a.m. I’ll see you outside my office.’

Kate said her farewells, and during the cab ride back to Battersea she called Danny to ask for his assistance in the morning. She caught the hesitation in his voice this time and she apologized for asking so much of him without explanation. She was aware she was stretching friendships to breaking point.

The same could be said of Rose, who was in bed in the spare room but not asleep by the time Kate got home, her bedside light visible beneath the door. Kate knocked and went in quietly. Rose put down her book. ‘Welcome home, traveller,’ she said.

‘I’m sorry I’m so late.’

‘All is well. Fiona is at Jay’s house. Gus went out like a light. I think all the rugby training is tiring him. He doesn’t even have the energy to game when he gets home.’

‘Wonders will never cease.’ Kate came to sit on the end of her aunt’s bed. One of her mother’s landscape paintings was the only adornment to a plain, drab room that overlooked the main road at the front. She had been meaning to do it up for years. ‘I must admit I thought the relationship with Jay might have gone south by now,’ Kate said.

‘I think their ardour has been rekindled, somehow.’

Kate smiled at her aunt. ‘We’d better not ask how.’

‘Did you have a good trip?’

‘It was eventful, which seems to be the story of my life, these days.’

‘I sometimes worry that you’re a bit too fond of the drama of interesting times.’ It was said without rancour, in the style Rose had perfected of reflective – and astute – psychological observation.

‘Maybe I was, but not any more. I want it to be over now.’

‘And how will it be over?’

‘I have some ideas. I mean, there are theories, but I need to find the evidence.’

Rose closed her book. ‘Well, good luck with that. In the meantime, I have good news. Maja arrives here tomorrow with her new parents. We’ve rented a house in Croydon. And found both the parents jobs. She’ll start school here in a few weeks’ time.’

‘Christ. What did Ian say?’

‘He doesn’t know.’

Kate burst out laughing. ‘You sly fox. How did you manage that?’

‘I’ve flipped it into next year’s accounts with only minor dishonesty.’

‘He’ll go absolutely mental.’

‘I certainly hope so.’ Rose was smiling back at her.

‘He’ll fire you.’

‘I doubt it. He’s not as brave as he likes to make out, as we have often discussed.’

Kate looked at her aunt. ‘Thank you,’ she said. She went to hug her. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘I’m going down to meet them in their new home tomorrow night. You can come with me, if you’d like.’

‘I’d love to.’

But as she lay in bed and tried to sleep, it was not joy or anticipation or even hope that gripped her, but Lena’s pale, frightened face as she’d steeled her to go undercover on that yacht in the days before she had been so brutally murdered.