Anna followed the others out and back to HQ, where she picked up her own car. It was after ten when she got home via Maggie’s. Lexi was, as always, overjoyed to see her. In the flat, Anna let the dog out into the dark garden to snuffle around and relieve herself while she checked her phone. Four missed calls. Two from her sister Kate and two from Ben.

Kate answered on the third ring. ‘Hi, Anna.’

Anna smiled, amazed as always how her sister managed to infuse sympathy and sincerity into just two words with enviable ease.

‘Hi, Kate. Sorry it’s so late.’

‘You sound tired.’

‘A bit. Little ones OK?’

‘They’re fine. They both missed you on Sunday.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. They were worried about the row you had with Grandma. They asked me if you were ever coming back.’

‘Was it that obvious?’

‘I said you’d be here as usual next Sunday.’ Kate hesitated before adding, ‘You will be, won’t you?’

‘Of course I will. You know I will. Mum does an excellent job of pressing my buttons, that’s all.’

‘She can’t help it.’

‘I took Ben with me up to Talgarth,’ Anna said quickly.

‘Why?’

‘Because I didn’t want to go there alone.’

‘But why go there at all?’

‘To remember.’ Anna paused and then said, ‘I don’t think she ever took you, did she?’

‘She said I was too young.’

‘She didn’t take you because in her twisted way of thinking, you didn’t need to see. You didn’t need to be warned that unless you started to behave in a way she considered normal, this was what was in store.’

‘Mum told you that?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve probably blocked out the memory. But what other reason could there have been? I was what, eight? It was not the sort of place you’d take an eight-year-old unless you wanted to scare the crap out of them.’ Anna tried desperately to recall the long journeys in the car but some safety mechanism in her brain had blanked them out. ‘You heard her. You know what she’s thinking.’

‘She doesn’t mean any of it, Anna.’

‘Yes, she does. Of course she does. That’s the bloody point. All these years of put-downs and disapproval, and all the while she’s managed to keep the ugly truth locked away. But now the genie’s well and truly out of the bottle and she can’t help herself. Can’t hide it. I was, I am, the little freak a whisker away from being locked up.’ She caught herself, knowing how this sounded. Years of bottled-up resentment released in a tirade poor Kate was having to listen to. But what she wasn’t expecting was the single, miserable sob that came down the line from her sister.

‘Kate?’

‘Oh, Anna. She’s still Mum.’

Something was missing from the end of that sentence and Anna’s mind supplied it effortlessly. For now, at least.

But this was Kate she was talking to, and she’d never be that blunt.

‘I didn’t mean to upset you,’ Anna said.

Kate sniffed. ‘You haven’t. It’s the truth and we both know it. But I see her more than you do. I’ve seen her change. She worries over nothing. But she worries more than anything over you when she sees the kind of thing you’re dealing with in the news. She does care, Anna.’

‘I know she does.’ The words slipped out before Anna could stop them because they were true. Ignorance was no defence in the eyes of the law, but in the twisted dynamics of family relationships it was the cause of much strife. If she wanted to, Anna could abandon her mother. Hurl back her ridiculous, meaningless, bigoted nonsense and walk away. But to do so would mean changing her relationship with Kate, and that she was not prepared to do. Anna was not very good at compromise, but the threat of losing Kate and her kids in the crossfire was incentive enough.

‘Look after yourself, babes,’ Kate said. ‘And remember I’m on speed dial on that phone of yours. I put it in myself.’

‘Don’t worry,’ she said to Kate. ‘I know exactly where that number is. I’ll see you Sunday.’

Lexi had come in from the garden to where Anna was sitting and began nuzzling her free hand. Anna buried her fingers in the warm fur as her work phone buzzed on the table in front of her.

Anna put down one phone and picked up the other. It was Khosa.

‘Ryia, what’s up?’

‘Just to say they’ve released Dr King, ma’am. Scans were negative. They were happy with his obs. He insisted on going home and one of the patrol cars dropped him off.’

‘Good. We’ll let him rest and pick up with him tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know.’

‘It is OK to leave him on his own, isn’t it, ma’am?’ Khosa asked.

‘So long as the medics think it is.’

‘I meant protection-wise.’

‘Why? Norcott’s attack wasn’t premeditated. He wasn’t looking for King. Why would he be looking for him again, now? Besides, Norcott’s abducted Beth and disappeared into the wilderness. King will be fine.’

‘They’ve upped the flood warning along the estuary, too, ma’am. I thought you ought to know that.’

‘What time is high tide again?’

‘Ten tomorrow morning.’

The door to the garden stood ajar after Lexi’s entrance. As if to emphasise Khosa’s warning, a gust of wind threw it back to clatter against the wall. Anna got up quickly, pushed it shut and locked it.

‘Looks like we’re in for a rough day tomorrow, Ryia. Get some sleep.’

‘You too, ma’am.’

But sleep was something Anna knew would not come easily that night. She was physically exhausted, but her head was buzzing. She didn’t want wine, not this evening. But she did need to speak to Ben. Needed his voice inside her head for a while so it could calm the thoughts that tossed and foamed like the sea in the weather footage of the Cornish coast she’d seen on the late news.

‘Hello.’ Though it was after ten thirty by now, Ben’s voice was not sleepy. His hello brimmed with amused delight and anticipation as always.

‘You’re not asleep, then.’

‘Not unless this is a shared lucid dream in which case we’re both unconscious.’ He paused for effect before adding, ‘You OK?’

‘Not really.’

He knew what she was working on. Knew it was, in his words, a ‘bastard’.

‘Just work?’

Anna smiled. Ben was probably the most emotionally intelligent person she knew. ‘Don’t probe into my psyche, Dr Hawley.’

‘It’s a psyche well worth probing into. Let me guess: Mummy dearest?’

‘Indirectly. Kate was worried I would never want to go to hers while my mother was there ever again. It’s such a waste of time and energy.’

‘Emotions, you mean?’

‘Feelings, maternal respect, upsetting the kids. It’s so… exhausting.’

‘What’s brought all this on? Is it Ryegrove?’

‘Maybe. I’ve been wondering what it might be like on one of the wards. Demonstrating how well adjusted I am to a team of therapists. I couldn’t think of anything worse.’

She waited for one of Ben’s pithy rejoinders, but none came. Instead, he was understanding. ‘We know it’s your specialist subject but not everyone does rational, Anna.’

She thought of Norcott staying silent for years, folding paper golems by way of communication. All completely irrational and yet there must have been some sort of reasoning going on in his warped brain. Knowing what that was would explain a great number of things. Anna dragged her thoughts back to the moment.

‘What about you? Your shift go OK?’

‘An alcoholic with bleeding oesophageal varices managed to redecorate a whole cubicle in projectile vomit. So yes, sublime is the word I was searching for.’

‘Still on for Friday? That Spanish place?’

‘Fingers crossed. Tapas and a decent Rioja, oh yes. I’ve heard good things. I have the whole weekend pencilled in with Lexi and you. Mainly Lexi, but if you happen to pop your head around the door, I’ll be there.’

‘Good to know,’ Anna said.

‘And I’m here on the end of the phone if you need me.’

‘OK. Lexi sends her love.’

‘I know she does. I’m sending some back telepathically.’

‘Lucky dog.’

‘She is, isn’t she?’

‘See you Friday.’ Anna killed the call. She did it wistfully, full of admiration for the way Ben was able to ease her burdens without really trying.

She made it to bed at eleven and found some restless sleep a little before midnight. Four and a half hours later she was wide awake, listening to the rain batter the window and the wind conducting the trees in a hissing symphony in the park not forty yards away.

The storm was growing in strength. She lay in bed, hearing it rage and cursing it until the numbers on her bedside clock got to five thirty when she got up, dressed and took Lexi outside to see what teeth the gale had. She came back in ten minutes later, dried the dog and then threw her wet clothes into the laundry before showering. At six thirty, her work phone rang. She didn’t recognise the number immediately, though something about it seemed terribly familiar.

‘Gwynne,’ she said.

‘Inspector, this is George Calhoun. I know it’s early, I took a chance you’d be up.’

‘I am.’

‘Courtesy call. Shaw collapsed during the night. We had him on a watch list, given his recent poor health. He’s in hospital. Thought you’d want to know in case you planned on visiting. He is no longer here.’

Anna’s pulse thrummed in her ears. ‘Where is he?’

‘Worcester Royal. Acute medical unit. They’re doing tests.’

‘How bad?’

‘He’s not dead. Not yet.’

‘He told me they thought it might be cancer.’

‘It might be. They’re trying to find it. Anyway, thought you ought to know.’

‘Thanks.’

Anna put the phone down and stirred her coffee, trying to analyse what she was feeling. She finally plumped for unsettled. Most of it stemmed from what was in front of her – the unknown. But a morsel of it came from Calhoun’s matter-of-fact news. She sat staring at the swirling clouds the milk made in the dark liquid in front of her, knowing it was probably as murky outside in the storm. The POLSA would not get going for another hour at least. She didn’t envy them their task and, much as she would have loved to get her hands dirty, there was no point in volunteering to get out there in the undergrowth herself. The rest of the team would be at the office at eight. They’d need half an hour or so to pick up on any queries they’d sent out last night. She could, if she wanted to, push the briefing back to nine thirty. That meant she had two hours to get to Worcester and back.

She’d never make it. But she’d give it a bloody good go.