“What’s wrong with his wife?”

“Dementia. She’s only middle-aged but she’s had it for years and apparently she’s pretty bad now. Killian’s thinking of taking early retirement to look after her.”

“See, there are still a few good men out there. Now come and eat.”

The gammon was surprisingly good. Taylor hadn’t enjoyed her food so much for weeks. She’d been thinking of sloping off upstairs to bed early, given how early she’d need to be up the next day, but supper gave her the energy to sit cheerily with Alice, over a glass of mint tea for her and port for her guest.

“You have a lovely house,” Alice said, “it’s so big. It must’ve cost a small fortune. Especially with that view.”

“I couldn’t afford it on a police salary,” Taylor admitted, “but the insurance company paid out enough money for me to buy it outright. I suppose Danny looked after me in that respect.”

“What was he like — Danny? He can’t always have been a bad lot. You wouldn’t have married him in the first place if he had been.”

“Danny?” Taylor shook her head. “Danny was Danny Taylor. Everybody knew Danny. He could walk into any pub in Edinburgh and there would be somebody there he knew.”

“Sounds just like my Stanley. How did you meet him?”

“It was at a Christmas party.” Taylor hadn’t talked about any of this since the accident. “The venue had been double-booked. Can you believe it? With all the logistical expertise the Edinburgh police force had at their disposal they couldn’t even organise a Christmas do.”

“It’s often the way.”

“Anyway, it was late December and all the decent venues were booked so we decided to share the place with some hot-shot property development company. The Royal Hotel. Smack bang in the middle of Edinburgh. I’m going to make another glass of mint tea. Would you like some?”

“I’m fine with the port. Go on. The Royal Hotel?”

“It was a typical December evening in Edinburgh. Cold, damp and dreary and looked as if it would be either raining or snowing for the next two years. They had a live band on. They were awful, but most of the guests were so drunk they didn’t seem to notice. I don’t drink much and there’s nothing worse than watching drunk people when you’re stone-cold sober. I’d had enough and I was about to slip away when I spotted a man sitting with a group of people at the bar.”

“Danny?”

“Danny. He was staring at me. He wasn’t making any attempt to hide it either. I must admit, I thought he was rather nice but I wasn’t up for being chatted up, so I left anyway.”

“Then what happened?”

“He must have followed me, because he caught up to me in the car park. He said he’d noticed I wasn’t enjoying myself and asked if there was something wrong. He seemed genuinely concerned. Not creepy, just nice.”

“They’re all like that in the beginning. It all changes when they’ve got what they’re after.”

“We chatted in the car park for a while. I remember the rain started to come down harder and he offered me his coat. I told him I had to go and he asked me for my phone number.”

“Just like that? And you gave it to him?”

“Danny was different. He made me feel different. Anyway, I gave him my number and thought nothing more of it.”

“But he phoned you?”

“The very next day. I’d worked overtime and I told him I wouldn’t be finished until after ten but that didn’t seem to bother him. We met at a bar that stayed open late and we talked all night. Danny listened. He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. We were married within a year.”

Alice poured another glass of port and sighed.

“What happened after the wedding?”

“That’s enough of my woes.” Taylor said. “It’s your turn. Tell me about Stanley Green.”

“It’s pretty much the same story. Stanley swept me off my feet at a dance. Milly was there too, but Milly was the shy one. It’s a miracle she ever found herself a husband. Stanley promised me the earth, I believed him, and we were married a month later. My family told me it would be a disaster — that’s why none of them came to the wedding — but I thought it was a whirlwind romance. Prince Charming, eh?”

“Do you have any children?”

“No. Stanley said they’d only bugger things up. Those were his exact words. I thought he would change his mind as he got older but he never did.”

“What did Stanley do for a living? Where did he work?”

“This and that. He never really talked much about what he did and I knew better than to ask him. There was always food on the table and I never went without. He’d be gone for days at a time. Work, he used to say. The days turned into weeks, then months and in the end he would disappear for years. The last time I set eyes on Stanley Green was ten years ago.”

“But you always took him back?”

“At first I did. I knew what he was up to, but I used to fool myself into thinking, ‘He always comes back to me in the end, so I must be important to him.’ I pretended everything was all right. It was Milly who used to have to pick up the pieces when he left. I was a mess the first few times.”

Taylor glanced at the clock on the oven. It was almost midnight.

“Is that the time?” She finished the cold tea in her glass. “I have to be up in five hours. I’d better go to bed.”

“Are you sure you won’t have a drop of port? It’ll help you to sleep.”

“I’ll sleep just fine.” She remembered the pills, still in her jacket pocket.

“I enjoyed the chat,” Alice said. “It’s nice to have someone to talk to again.”

“For me too.”

“You know what, Detective Harriet Taylor? You and I have more in common than either of us realises.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Taylor arrived at the station fifteen minutes early. She wanted to make a good impression on her first day in the new team. DCI James was already there, talking to PC Thomas White by the front desk. Thomas looked terrified. He was a good head taller than the DCI from Exeter but he stood with his head bowed.

“Good morning. Bright and early.” James had spotted her. “Good. There’s time for a quick cup of coffee before we get cracking. We’ll meet in my office. We won’t be disturbed in there.”

He meant Killian’s office. James walked off to the canteen and she didn’t feel like joining him. She’d made up her mind to commit to the investigative work but other than that she didn’t want to be chummy with the new gang.

“Morning,” Thomas said to her. “I believe you’re part of the A team?”

“I won’t ask what the ‘A’ stands for. I didn’t ask to be part of this. I suppose everybody’s going to snub me from now on?” she said.

“Only the morons. I say good luck to you. Get this murderer banged to rights. It’s still all over the papers, you know.”

“I’m sure it will be for a while yet. I suppose I’d better go and introduce myself to the A team.”

Killian’s office door was shut. Killian had usually left it open. Taylor didn’t know whether to knock, but she did anyway. Inside, the skinniest woman Taylor had ever seen was sitting behind Killian’s desk. She was wearing a pair of rimless reading glasses. DI Jane Carrick, Taylor thought.

The other two people in the room could not have been more unlike each other. One was completely bald. He had a nasty scar on the top of his head. His eyes were set far too close together and his nose was a button in the middle of his chubby face. The other was dark-skinned and pensive-looking, with green eyes and a full, almost feminine mouth.

“You must be Harriet,” DI Carrick said. “Good to have you on board. I’m DI Jane Carrick and this is DS Paul Southern and DC Phil Brown.”

Rather to Taylor’s surprise, Brown was the bald chubby man and Southern the wistful-looking one.

“The DCI will be along in a short while,” Carrick told her.