Lucy ran her fingers through her hair. It was too warm in the station and she was stressed. Mattie walked back into the incident room with his clipboard. Browning followed, his tie loosened and his top three shirt buttons undone.

‘Tell me he’s made a full and frank confession.’

‘No, he hasn’t. He went the “no comment” route, apart from at the beginning when he was talking about their relationship before he screwed it up. Then he swore it had nothing to do with him.’

‘Fuck.’

‘Double fuck. And now he has to go up to the hospital because whatever shit he last injected into his veins has worn off and he needs to see a doctor. So Smithy is pissed because he’s had to send two officers up with him to guard him.’

‘Bloody hell.’

‘So there’s nothing more we can do tonight.’

She looked at the clock on the wall – it was almost 10 p.m. ‘Right, well let’s call it a day. He’ll be at the hospital for hours and then he’ll need to get his eight hours’ beauty sleep in before we can question him again anyway. We might as well go home and get some rest.’

Browning almost cracked a smile.

Lucy drove into her street and felt her heart skip a beat to see the landing and living-room lights on in her house. She hadn’t been home all day and they definitely weren’t on when she left this morning. Parking outside, she phoned Ellie, who answered straight away.

‘Sorry, Mum – it’s me, I’m in the house. I got us a Chinese. You’ll have to warm yours up; it’s probably cold by now.’

‘Thanks, sweetheart, I was just checking.’

Getting out of the car, her heart rate slowed down to its normal pace. Lizzy Clements had left her a nervous wreck, even though Lucy would never admit it to anyone. She hated that she felt this way. At one point she wasn’t afraid of anything but now she was afraid of almost everything and it didn’t feel right. She needed to get over it because Lizzy Clements couldn’t hurt her or Ellie any more; she was dead. As she walked towards the front door, it opened and she was pleased to see Ellie standing there in a fluffy brown pair of pyjamas, which made her look like a five-foot teddy bear.

‘You’re sleeping here?’

‘Yes, if it’s okay?’

‘Of course it’s okay. I love seeing you. Especially after crappy days like today.’

‘Good – I didn’t want you to be on your own tonight after you left that message.’

Lucy looked at her daughter, who had grown up more in the last month than she could ever have imagined. She followed her inside the house, locking the front door behind them. The smell of whatever Chinese delights Ellie had ordered filled her nostrils and her stomach groaned in appreciation.

‘I’m starving and you are an angel.’

Ellie laughed. ‘Before you start praising me, I do have a reason for being so nice.’

‘I don’t care – you put the heating on and brought food. As long as you’re not pregnant we’re good.’

‘Mum. As if. You actually need a boyfriend for that to happen.’

Lucy kicked off her shoes and shrugged off her coat. Hanging it up in the hall cupboard, she noticed a large, brown envelope on the hall table. She decided that whatever it was could wait, and ran upstairs.

‘Let me have a shower and some food before you go upsetting me.’

Ellie rolled her eyes, but smiled. She went back into the living room, where MTV was on the television. She lowered the sound and went into the kitchen to dish up the food.

Lucy came down wrapped in a fluffy cream dressing gown with a towel around her damp hair. She walked into the kitchen and sat on one of the stools at the breakfast bar, ready to devour the plate of food that Ellie had placed in front of her.

‘Do you want a glass of wine?’

She shook her head. ‘I’m too knackered. I’ll be asleep before I finish my lunch, tea, supper. So what is it you wanted to ask me?’

Ellie paused for a few seconds, then blurted it out. ‘You know Fern? Her parents are going on a cruise and she doesn’t want to go on her own so they’ve said she can take a friend with her. Please can I go? Dad said I could, but he said I had to clear it with you first.’

Lucy, who had just shoved a huge forkful of noodles into her mouth, was grateful for the few extra seconds to compose herself. Bloody George would say it was okay. She didn’t know if she was happy about her daughter going off on a cruise.

‘Please don’t freak out about it, Mum, it’s just a ten-day cruise around the Mediterranean. There won’t be any pirates to come on board the boat to kidnap us and the last time I looked you and Dad weren’t Liam Neeson, so it’s not like Taken 4 is going to happen.’

Lucy couldn’t help it and began to laugh. ‘Ellie, don’t be so cheeky. I’m not freaking out. Well, maybe a little. I don’t really know Fern or her parents – I’d worry about you.’

‘Yes you would and it’s okay that you do, but Dad and Rosie know them really well.’

‘I’ll speak to your dad tomorrow. If he says its okay then its okay with me.’

‘Really? You don’t want to have an argument about it?’

She stared at her daughter, who was turning into quite the beautiful young woman.

‘No, I don’t want an argument about it. I want you to be happy.’

Ellie squealed and ran to Lucy, wrapping her arms around her mother as she planted a huge kiss on her cheek. ‘I promise I’ll be good. I won’t fall overboard and drown.’

‘Well, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t.’

‘Can I go and phone Fern and tell her it’s a ninety-nine point five per cent chance of me going?’

Lucy nodded and Ellie screeched once more and skipped off to find her phone. She carried on eating her food – she needed something inside her and then she was going to bed. Lucy’s phone vibrated on the kitchen counter next to her and she glanced down at it. She read Stephen’s new message and sighed, wondering if she’d been too hasty in calling it a day. Or whether she should send Browning round to his house to warn him off. The only problem with that particular solution was the fact that the whole station would find out because he wasn’t very good at being discreet. The last thing she wanted was to become the object of gossip, she’d given them plenty to talk about the last couple of years without adding to it.

Yes, she wanted a life outside work, but not if it meant turning it into a full-time job just to make it worthwhile. At least she could concentrate on Stacey Green and Melanie Benson’s murders without feeling guilty about the time she wasn’t spending with Stephen.