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extinct when it wasn’t. I expect you’ve paid him a visit as well. No? Now why does that not surprise me? What’s one more body in the grand scheme of things?”
    “Roger didn’t mess up, Joey. The paramedics didn’t even bother with resuss. She was dead.”
    “Sure she was. So what are you saying? I sprinkled fairy dust and magically brought her back to life? I know we just had Halloween, Dennis, but that’s shite and you know it. If you want to cover up for Roger, that’s fine. I mean let’s be honest, I’m the expendable one here, aren’t I?”
    “I’m not covering up for anyone.”
    McNeil ignored him. “Does it matter anyway? She’s alive now because of me. I’m the fucking hero. So why are you here giving me a hard time when you have your key witness? You should be out there cracking the whip with the rest of the team, knocking on doors, casting your net, catching the guy who did it.”
    “I’m here because I’m worried about you.”
    “I thought you were done with me. Wasn’t that what you said? I mean, I could be wrong. You did have your hands round my throat at the time.”
    “Do you blame me? Christ, Joey, you’re a bloody disgrace. You turn up on scene half-cut, ignore procedure and contaminate evidence. You see ghosts and shadows at every bloody turn.  Is it any wonder we all jumped to the wrong conclusion when you decided to lay one on a corpse?”
    “Ghosts?”
    Dennis sighed heavily. “This whole business with Kit, you need to sort it out, Joey. It isn’t healthy. It’s affecting your judgment, your behaviour. There’s only so much grief a body can take.”
    McNeil took his time pouring hot water onto the coffee, concentrating hard to make sure the water ended up in the mugs and not all over the counter top. “This whole business, as you put it, has nothing to do with you, Dennis. But since you don’t seem able to leave it alone, let me explain. Grieving is for the dead. Kit is not dead.”
    “We’ve been through this so many times. I wish things were different, too, but they’re not. She’s dead, Joey. You just have to accept it.”
    “You show me the evidence and I’ll accept it. That’s what we work on, don’t we, hard evidence? I’ve seen nothing that convinces me that she’s not out there somewhere.”
    “You want evidence? We have evidence, Joey. The abandoned car? The blood at the scene? The broken bracelet?”
    McNeil slammed his mug down. Scalding liquid seared the back of his hand but the pain didn’t even register. “Evidence of a crime, not a murder.”
    “Joey, you know as well as I do the number of cases where we never find the … victim. It’s about balance of probabilities.”
    “Hey, don’t pull any punches on my behalf, just say it, Dennis - the body. That’s what you think, isn’t it? That whoever took her killed her and dumped her body. Well, I’m sorry if it messes up the book keeping, but I don’t accept that. I’ll never accept that.”
    “The case will stay open until we find her, I can assure you of that.”
    McNeil’s face twisted angrily. “Yeah, and how many officers are working the case?”
    Dennis shook his head wearily. “Okay, let’s say you’re right and she’s still alive. Would you rather that she’d walked out on you, left you for someone else, someone better perhaps? Is that more palatable? Because I’m telling you now, Joey, if that’s the case she did a bloody good job of making sure she couldn’t be found, and that begs the question … why?”
    McNeil closed his eyes and counted back in his head. The only thing he wanted was Kit. She wasn’t dead and she hadn’t left him. Both options were equally unpalatable. But the alternative, that someone might be holding her against her will, was unbearable. When he spoke the words, they came out strained, his voice barely audible. “Dennis, I can’t do this today.”
    Dennis considered him a moment longer before pulling out his wallet and extracting a card.