SUPERINTENDENT CARVER arrived about an hour after Gerry, who was wrapped in a blanket drinking her second cup of tea by then. The painkillers from the station’s first aid kit had already kicked in. The police doctor had examined her and said her shoulder blade was most likely cracked, but he didn’t think it was seriously fractured. He improvised a brace and sling, as Gerry insisted she needed to stay and talk to her boss, then made her promise to go to A & E and get X-rayed as soon as she had done so. She knew he was bending the rules by allowing her a little time, and she was grateful. The police bureaucracy could be touchy about insurance and work injury issues. She had also convinced the duty sergeant to send a patrol car to the old house to try to find Jade, though Gerry felt certain she would be long gone by now.

Superintendent Carver was followed after another half hour or so by Banks and DI Cabbot. Gerry had never been so glad to see anyone before. Friendly faces at last. Well, almost. Carver looked as if he’d just swallowed a dog turd, and even Annie’s face seemed hard and unsmiling, but the first thing Banks did was bend over her and ask if she was all right. Gerry could have kissed him. Not that she fancied him, or anything, but she was just so relieved that someone cared. Whatever kind of idiot he thought she’d behaved like—and she was fast coming to believe that she had been foolish—he was first of all concerned about her welfare.

Carver ushered them into his office, which was a lot messier than Banks’s, piled high with reports and bulging file folders, coffee cup rings all over, an array of framed family photographs on the shelf above the filing cabinets. Gerry was amazed to see that the two children pictured, about six and seven, were almost identical to their father. “So what the bloody hell have you lot been up to on my patch now?” Carver began. He spoke with the pent-up wrath of a man who’s been reining himself in for too long already, not to mention been dragged out of his bed, and he was clearly upset that Gerry had refused to talk to him until her SIO arrived.

Gerry first played them the recording, then told her story, avoiding Carver’s eyes and aiming most of her answers toward Banks, who had assumed an impassive expression. Annie appeared to be softening, too, asking for a little clarification here and there, as if Gerry were confirming what she had already suspected.