‘And the Board of Governors might be prepared to overlook an affair, but they’d have something to say about you inflating a student’s grades in return for sexual favours.’

He watches the colour drain from Ratner’s face. At last, in a quiet voice, he says, ‘How did you find out?’

‘Let’s just say I’m not stupid, shall we?’

‘OK, OK.’ Ratner is shocked now, Cullen can see, and a hint of resignation has crept into his voice, but he isn’t quite out yet. Any moment now he’s going to rally and try to make a case for himself. It’s like watching a bull in the ring, half broken and bloodied with banderillas, taking a deep breath before going in for the final charge.

‘And Mark?’ he says, intimately.

‘Yes?’

‘I have a wife and mortgage to support. I also happen to like my career. I want you to consider that everything you do reflects on me. So if you don’t stop, and I mean completely cease, seeing that girl, I will kill you.’

Chapter 18

Honor

Honor blinks into the dark, puzzled by the unfamiliar surroundings, remembering moments later that she is lying on the mattress in Gerry the van. That explains why she can’t feel her fingers and toes. Even the boat never gets quite this cold. She checks her watch. It is still early, but going back to sleep now will be impossible. Sliding out of her sleeping bag, she clambers into the driver’s seat and starts the engine, watching her breath condensing on the windscreen. Pressing her palms against the air grills she waits for the hot air to blow away the night chill and hopes that Bill’s contact comes good with his offer of a place on a boat. No way could she stay in the van for long in this weather.

At a nearby McDonald’s she pays for a coffee and a McMuffin with what little remains in her purse and uses the toilets to wash and change into the charity shop formal tweeds and green shirt. Emerging from the cubicle, she checks herself in the mirror. How is a thirty-nine-year-old woman supposed to present herself? It’s so long since she’s had to make a good first impression. A few parent–teacher days and the odd meeting with the school head to talk about Nevis’s progress and her eccentricities. She rarely goes out socially and when she does it’s only ever with other bargees, who are a casual to casual-scruffy bunch. Most of her business in the very specialised world of narrowboat renovation and repair is repeat custom so no clients to impress and no requirement to dress up when you spend most of your day covered in engine grease.