‘What’s the latest?’ Thorne looked at Helen, but she refused to meet his eye. She just said, ‘We know about as much as you do. Less, probably.’ ‘I don’t believe that for a minute,’ Paula said. She worked as a nurse at a hospital in Nuneaton and had only been home for half an hour or so when Thorne and Helen arrived. She had answered the door wearing a dressing gown and tracksuit bottoms; teddy bear slippers with ears on them. ‘Out of my uniform, quick shower to get rid of the smell of the place and into my jammies,’ she told them. Thorne and Helen dropped their bags at the bottom of the stairs and followed her into the kitchen. They told her how grateful they were for her offer to put them up and she told them not to be so daft; that there was no point having a spare room if you weren’t going to use it and that old schoolfriends should stick together. They stood and watched her make toast, turning down her offer to stick a couple more slices under the grill for them.
