With every reason to be cautious, Marie thought. What the hell was she doing there this early in the morning? She considered some acid response and then, just in time, bit it back. It wasn’t early in the morning. It was nearly noon. Sue would be making her scheduled visit. Marie had got back from Lizzie’s a couple of hours before, stretched out on the sofa, and promptly fallen asleep. She’d woken feeling worse than she’d ever felt in her life, at least without the contribution of alcohol. She was conscious that there were things she had to do. She should contact Salter, to see if there was news on McGrath and find out what the bloody hell she was supposed to do. She should try to discover the truth about Lizzie’s father. And she should check how Liam was. Through the events of the night, somewhere at the back of her head had been nagging anxiety about Liam. She didn’t know how much to trust Sue. Not her honesty or integrity, but simply her judgement. In Marie’s experience, the carers tended to overstate Liam’s illness.
