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“It’s ironed.”

“I iron now.”

“Since when?”

“Since…” Lauren’s brain served up nothing. Absolutely nothing. The cupboard was bare. “Recently.”

Paige opened her mouth, and the toilet flushed.

Neither of them moved. Even Berkeley turned his head.

The bathroom door opened down the hall, and footsteps came towards them on the tiles. Unhurried. Steady. The footsteps of a woman who had walked into rooms full of senior officers without flinching, and was now doing the domestic equivalent.

Carly appeared in the kitchen doorway.

She was wearing Lauren’s Manchester City keeper’s shirt, which came down to the middle of her thighs, and very little else that Lauren could see. Her hair was loose and messy around her shoulders. There was a faint red mark on the side of her neck that Lauren was fairly confident she’d put there herself.

“Morning, Paige,” Carly said.

Paige looked at her for a long, long moment.

“Morning, Carly,” she said.

Sam, oblivious, kept feeding. Berkeley’s tail thumped once against the back door.

“I was going to put the kettle on,” Carly said, with remarkable composure. “But I’m getting the feeling I shouldn’t.”

“Don’t,” Lauren said.

“Do,” Paige said, at the same time.

Carly looked from one to the other. Then she nodded, as if she’d assessed the terrain and identified the only viable route out.

“I’m going to have a shower,” she said, and turned around and walked back down the hall. The bathroom door closed. A moment later, the water started running.

Silence settled over the kitchen.

Lauren put her face in her hands.

“Well,” Paige said. “That explains the jacket.”

“Don’t.”

“And the hoodie.”

“Paige.”

“And the magnet. I’m guessing the magnet.”

“Paige.”

When Lauren finally peeled her hands away from her face, Paige was looking at her. There was smugness in it, tucked away at the corners, but mostly she looked like she was checking for damage.

“Come here,” Paige said.

Lauren pulled out the chair beside her and sat. Sam had slowed down, his eyelids drooping, one tiny hand opening and closing against Paige’s skin.

“I’m going to ask you one thing,” Paige said, keeping her voice low. “And then I’ll leave. I promise. I’ll go and sit in a lay-by.”