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started to take over before being replaced by a series of light browns. Some looked natural, others didn’t. Now she was starting to look like the woman she would become. Older, more frail. There were broken veins under her eyes and her cheeks were acquiring a permanent flush. Joe knew it was the booze, but there was no point in saying anything. She drank to reach oblivion when she needed it, and Joe knew that his birthdays were always the toughest. She put herself under pressure to make it a good day for him, even though he had told her often that it didn’t matter. But if they didn’t do this it would become solely about Ellie, and she needed the drink to get her through the day.
    ‘Come this way,’ Ruby said, interrupting, pulling him to a chair by the fire. Even though it was May and warm outside, the fire was on a low heat.
    He let Ruby lead him, and sat there as they sang him ‘Happy Birthday’. Joe did his best to look cheerful, for Ruby’s sake, and then Ruby disappeared to bring in the small pile of presents. He made a show of delight as he unwrapped them, laughing at the jokes on the cards, expressing all the right amount of gratitude for each gift. Shirt, a mug, beer and socks.
    ‘Happy birthday,’ his mother said, and a tear rolled down her cheek.
    ‘I’ve got to go soon,’ Joe said, and then winced at the hurt that flashed across her eyes for a second. He wished he could take the words back, but they were out now.
    ‘So which low-life is more important than your family today?’ Sam said.
    ‘It sounds like you’re the one who’s still on duty,’ Joe said, sighing. ‘Try not being a copper for a day. You might like it.’
    ‘Go on, tell me how they’re just people, like you and me.’
    ‘Let’s not have this conversation again.’
    ‘I’ve seen how your clients really are, when they’re spitting and snarling in their handcuffs. You get the cleaned-up version, when they’re pleading for bail or whatever.’
    ‘They are still people.’
    ‘Don’t fight, boys.’ It was their mother.
    They both smiled at her, trying to make it out like it was all a joke, just a brotherly wrestle, except that the passing years had made it more verbal than physical.
    ‘His work is more important,’ Sam said.
    ‘Joe’s work is important,’ she said. ‘I’m very proud of him.’
    Sam clenched his jaw. He locked them up, Joe set them free, but in her world success was measured by the price of your suit, not the good work that you did.
    ‘I’ll call in later, I promise,’ Joe said.
    His mother’s smile was even more forced. She knew he was avoiding the graveyard trip.
    Sam’s phone rang. He turned away as he answered but Joe listened in anyway.
    ‘I’m not working today,’ Sam said. He listened, and then his voice seemed to raise a notch when he said, ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’
    When he turned back around Joe said, ‘What is it?’
    Sam looked back at his phone and said, ‘I’ve got to go in. They want to speak to me about a murder case.’
    ‘I thought you were on the financial unit?’
    ‘I am,’ Sam said.
    ‘So why a murder?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    Joe didn’t get an answer when he reached for a sandwich and said, ‘It’s not good when work gets in the way, is it?’

Seven
     
    Sam Parker checked his tie in the rear-view mirror and straightened it, but it just became more twisted than before. He straightened it again, so that it ended up how it had started. Sam didn’t feel ready to go in so soon after visiting Ellie’s grave, but an inspector on the Murder Squad had summoned him. He couldn’t ignore it. The Murder Squad wasn’t the official name, it was now the Major Incident Team, but Sam knew that the egos preferred the old moniker.
    He looked up at the building. Stanmoss police station was old and built in redbrick with wings at either end. Rings of sandstone wrapped around it, so that it looked like it was wrapped in gold, although it looked jaded, with the