‘You’re not allowed to take the piss,’ Liam replies, taking a swig of water from the bottle attached to his bike. ‘I wouldn’t have to come out here if you just spoke to me once in a while.’

‘Don’t you have a car?’ Robin tilts his head to one side and appraises his brother-in-law with a wince. ‘Christ, Liam, I can see what you had for breakfast.’

‘Piss off. Now fetch me a towel, before I freeze to death.’

Robin does as he’s told and goes upstairs to his bathroom. When he comes back downstairs again, Liam’s sitting at his kitchen table, looking at a crime scene photo with interest. Robin throws the towel to him and Liam wipes the sweat off his face.

‘Is this what you’ve been working on?’ he asks.

‘Yeah. Although not work, as such.’ Robin explains the case as best he can, talking about Finn and all the evidence against him.

‘I’m sorry, mate,’ Liam replies. ‘But it looks like you’ve done everything you can for your friend.’

‘I know,’ Robin replies, grimly.

‘And how was Devon?’

‘Unchanged.’

‘You should have said, I would have come, too. It must have been hard to go there alone.’

‘Freya came with me.’

‘Oh, okay.’ There’s a long pause, and Robin feels Liam looking at him.

‘Nothing like that,’ he replies.

‘No? Oh, okay. I guess, I just hoped…’

Robin smiles. ‘You did, did you?’

‘Christ, I’m turning into Georgia.’ Liam takes a long breath in, then leans back on Robin’s chair. ‘All she ever did was worry about you. “Do you think Robin’s okay? Do you think that new girlfriend is right for him? Do you think we should invite him round for dinner?” It used to drive me mad, Rob.’ He laughs. ‘And now I’m doing it.’

Robin returns Liam’s smile. ‘I’m fine. Honestly. And I promise there’s nothing going on between Freya and I.’

‘You can hardly blame me for thinking there is. She’s the only person you talk about.’

‘That’s not true,’ Robin responds automatically, but then he realises Liam’s probably right. Who else does he see every day?

But Liam’s gone quiet. He’s staring at the tabletop, his face downcast, his eyebrows knitted together.

‘Are you okay, Liam?’ Robin asks.

‘Yeah… Look, I need to talk to you.’

Robin senses the mood change. The familiar sinking sensation in his stomach grows. Whatever Liam has to say, Robin knows it’s not good.

‘Go on,’ he says cautiously.

‘I wanted to tell you first. Before you found out any other way.’

‘Okay…’

‘It’s just…’ Liam takes a long breath in. ‘I’ve been seeing someone,’ he says quickly. ‘And it’s not serious. But I think it could be. And I didn’t want you to think… or… I don’t know. But I wanted to tell you.’