I think about my mum, all round and smiley. How she packs me lunches for school and makes sure I have the salt and vinegar crisps. How she always asks how my day was, regardless of her own, so that even when I visited her in hospital in a daze – accompanied by an overzealous social worker – her first words were ‘How was school?’ as I tried not to notice the blood at the edges of her mouth or the eye that couldn’t open.

‘I miss mine,’ I hear myself say. ‘But she prefers my dad.’

Aoife nods.

We lie for a while, listening to the cries and the shouts from below and above, before Aoife rolls over to face me, both hand palms tucked together under one cheek. ‘School tomorrow,’ she says.

I stare at her. There’s the slightest edge of fear in her eyes and it makes my heart start to pound. She squeezes my arm and I squeeze hers back. It anchors me.

‘Together, yeah?’ she says.

I stare at her: freckles, red curls, big, searching eyes. ‘Yeah,’ I reply.

Thirteen

When Nell’s mobile rang it took seconds for it to drag her from a dream she instantly couldn’t remember.

‘We’ve got a body.’

Nell could barely focus on Bremer’s voice.

‘A body?’ She cradled the mobile under her chin and reached for the glass of water beside her bed.

‘Yes, and from the description, it sounds like Connor O’Brian.’

The man’s body lay face down on the floor, the back of his head caved in. Nell pulled on her blue plastic gloves as Paul nodded downwards.

‘The pathologist has had a look at the face and it’s definitely O’Brian.’

Nell didn’t need a pathologist to tell her that, but she nodded just the same. ‘Who’s the pathologist?’

‘Eve Graham.’

‘Twice in one week, lucky us.’ Nell refused to think about Kelly-Anne’s confession and the doubt that threw on Eve; what she needed to do was go through the scene, and do it methodically.

Nell knelt on the floor, noting the congealed blood matted into what was left of O’Brian’s skull. ‘Did Eve give us any idea of time of death or method used?’

‘She gave her usual “I’m not committing to anything until I’ve got him on the slab”, but she did say she thinks it was within the last eight hours and death was due to blunt trauma to the head.’

Nell looked over at him. Paul held up his hands.

‘They’ve got to call it, even if it is bloody obvious.’

‘Where is she now?’

‘In the kitchen, or what passes for a kitchen anyway, checking out a couple of blood patches.’