She was trying to think of a polite but spiky response when he rang off.

Drew stuck his head out of the boys’ bedroom door, his sandy hair looking endearingly unkempt. Actually, everything about him looked that bit more attractive when she was being dragged out of the house in the small hours.

‘Work?’

‘I’m sorry. I know I’m still on leave, but …’

‘I’m guessing it’s something big.’

‘Somebody seems to think so.’

She threw on a suit, tied back her hair into something that would pass for order at this hour and allowed herself a quick check in the mirror. Ostensibly this was for reassurance that her appearance was professionally acceptable before leaving the building, but that was the only issue it offered any reassurance on. It was never the best time to judge these things, but she thought she looked old. Grey flashing at the roots, and the rest of it never the silky black it had once been without the help of her colourist. She was overdue a trip to the salon, something she’d put off until after her holiday, sunshine, sand and seawater never doing much for her coiffure.

Her eyes looked a little puffy, though the consolation was that the minor swelling stretched the skin and concealed a few wrinkles. Drew always said he thought the lines gave her eyes an intensity, but he was the one who referred to her nose as being aquiline when a less indulgent individual would probably have settled for big. His testimony was far from objective, especially considering that it was frequently offered in the service of improving his chances of a shag, but she liked to hear it anyway.

Catherine slipped out quietly, her sons’ queries still resonating despite the gravity of the development that had interrupted them. Whodunit. She didn’t want to go there. She avoided talking shop around the boys, but the truth was they couldn’t get enough of it. All the things that she feared might disturb them were the very things they most craved to hear about. Evil little changelings: where had they come from? What had happened to the guileless wee innocents that she used to pick up from nursery?