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Everything seemed to bubble up from somewhere deep below the surface of his consciousness

‘Is there any possibility that so my words carefully here …’

‘Who? And even h’

‘Is it?’

‘It was generally thought that she had no quality of life I never thought so, but you all did, and everyone at Ivy Lodge, except that sweet girl Shirley No one thought her life orth living’

‘Sweeping’

‘But true’

‘Yes, I suppose so Yes, especially in the last couple of years when she was succuht that – it’s a big step to doing so her That’s the word you have to use, Si You should know’

‘Yes’

‘Derek Wix saw her first and he was confident it was heart failure Chris went in to see her He didn’t examine her, true, but he saw her and he didn’t question Derek’s opinion Nobody at Ivy Lodge questioned the cause of death You bloody detectives see cri Felix, ailed in fright

‘Nathan, where are you?’

‘Standing outside BG, guv I been in seein’ Andy Gunton only he’s still in a bad way, they wasn’t letting anyone in’

‘Have his family been told?’

‘Sister’s there now I know that Michelle Tait She had a mouthful for me when she saw me down the corridor, but then she’s always had a mouthful for anyone’

‘Do we knohat happened?’

‘Naw Man with the ’edge tri there, looked down and saw hiht off He’d been beaten up and dropped out of a vehicle, seems like’

‘Nasty’

‘He’s mixed up with some nasty people … I’m off up to see Lee Carter’

‘You know hiht’

‘Well, be careful, take soh?’

‘You knohat I uv?’

‘I did She’s in a bad way’

‘Well, she was always going to be, wasn’t she?’

‘Yes,’ Serrailler said ‘Yes, I suppose she was’ He liked the way his DS went straight at things

Sius is your patient, isn’t she?’

‘Chris’s’

‘But you know her?’

‘Not very well Why?’

He pulled out a chair and sat on it back to front, facing Cat as she sat with Felix at her breast

‘She worried us house Cat listened carefully, stroking the baby’s small head His feet curled and uncurled with the extre

‘She’s obviously in shock, but that’s not surprising’

‘She didn’t seeh I was there but not there She seemed in a trance’

‘Detached?’

‘Yes … h, yes It’s the daughter I feel most concerned about She was at school but it sounds as if she isn’t talking to her mother at all – she locks herself in her roous won’t have anyone else in the house, said they were fine’

‘Could she be suicidal?’

‘No She didn’t seey or sense of purpose for that’

‘Would she be a danger to Lucy?’

‘Only in the sense that she’d neglect her, be unaware of her or what she was doing, not bother with her’

‘Not good Do you want ot so o I think the locu’ She lifted Felix and began to rub his back

‘OK, I’d better hit the road’

‘Oh no You sit there until you tell ’

He had known she would bring him back to it He had never been able to evade her, even when they were children

‘You asked if I thought someone could have killed Martha’

‘Not in so many words’

‘Oh, don’t be jesuitical, it’s what you ht Do you?’

‘But who?’

‘That isn’t part of the question I just ht be Is it likely? No, of course not Why would anyone do that? Because they wanted to be rid of her?’

‘Because they felt sorry for her?’

‘Who felt sorry for her?’

‘God, Cat, stop challengingthis Bloody police as natural death, you know’

‘Let’s drop it I’ve got to go Nathan has gone to see a potentially dangerous ht to be there’

‘Suit yourself I just wish you hadn’t walked in here and sown all sorts of doubts and left them to sprout up between the cracks in the floor tiles’

Si, holding the baby close to her face

‘Oh Christ, I’’