‘There’s nothing bad about me not talking about you,’ Jessica said.

‘Sorry?’

‘What Dave just said about me not talking about you, it’s not because I don’t like you. It’s just not the type of workplace for that . . .’

Adam smiled. ‘You told me to assume everything you said was a joke but when he makes a joke, you take it all seriously. It’s okay, I don’t mind.’

Jessica didn’t get much of an opportunity to feel embarrassed about her moment of insecurity before another familiar face came walking across to them. Carrie had dressed up for the evening, wearing a short blue dress with matching heels. It was definitely a little over the top for the standard of the venue and she was getting plenty of sideways glances from the men. She didn’t seem to notice and strolled over to the booth, making Jessica shuffle over so she could sit alongside them.

She initially ignored her friend, leaning right across her to shake hands with the man. ‘You must be Adam?’

‘Yeah, hi. Are you Carrie?’

‘Yeah, you all right? Pleased to meet you at last.’ She turned back to Jessica. ‘Where’s Dave?’

‘Gone for a wee and then he’s getting the drinks in.’

‘Ooh, that’s nice of him.’

‘He doesn’t know yet.’

Jessica turned to Adam, pointing backwards at Carrie. ‘Don’t mind her accent by the way. She’s not got some sort of debilitating brain injury or anything, she’s just from Wales.’

‘Oi, cheeky,’ the constable chirped back.

Conversation flowed easily and, when Dave returned, Jessica told him he could get the drinks in for them all. Adam volunteered to help and, not long after, the four of them were sitting in the booth as the quizmaster read the rules out over a crackly PA system.

‘We’re still waiting for someone,’ Dave said.

‘Who else is coming?’ Jessica asked.

‘You’ll see, a mate of yours. That should narrow it down to three or four.’ Adam was consistently laughing along with Rowlands’s jokes, which was partly pleasing for Jessica as he was fitting in nicely, but somewhat annoying because at least two-thirds of the officer’s jokes were at her expense.

‘Are you all right by the way?’ Rowlands asked the other constable.

‘Yeah fine,’ Carrie replied.

‘Why, what’s up?’ Jessica asked.

Carrie started to say ‘nothing’ but Rowlands talked over her. ‘I saw Farraday having a go at her earlier near one of the holding rooms.’

Jessica looked from one of them to the other. ‘Why, what about?’

‘I don’t know,’ Rowlands said.

‘Carrie?’

‘Nothing really. It’s not important.’

Jessica wanted to push the issue but the quizmaster was starting the first round. As a clearly annoyed Carrie loudly shushed them so she could hear the opening question, Jessica remembered she was well known in the station for being fiendishly competitive.

A couple of years earlier, officers based at Longsight had been part of a charity fun day. The station’s police had faced off against the local fire brigade in a sponsored sack race and Carrie had been determined to win. Unfortunately for her, she had hopped a bit too excitedly over the finishing line and wiped out a thirteen-year-old boy who was waving a chequered flag. The poor lad had spent the rest of his summer holiday with a broken leg and she had picked up the unfortunate nickname ‘Terminator’. It wasn’t used quite so often now but every now and then someone, usually Rowlands, would remind her.

Jessica had a silent giggle to herself remembering the tangled heap of young teenager, chequered flag, old sack and fully grown woman.

The quizmaster’s voice told them the first round was ‘geography’ as an audible groan rippled around the room before he asked the first question. ‘What’s the capital of Latvia?’

The three officers looked blankly at each other, as Adam leant in closer to Carrie to whisper: ‘It’s Riga’.

He also knew the answer to the two questions that followed and they all knew the fiftieth American state. After two rounds of results, they were joint first, mainly due to Adam. The quizmaster stopped for the first drinks break and Adam went to the toilet as the two girls sent Rowlands back to the bar. They had at least given him some money the second time around.

As soon as they had the booth to themselves, Carrie leant in close to Jessica and smiled broadly. ‘He’s nice.’

‘Adam?’

‘Of course Adam, I’m not going to be talking about Dave, am I?’

‘He’s all right.’

‘He can take me out if you’re being picky.’

‘I thought you had a bloke?’

‘I did, well maybe still do. I don’t know really.’

‘Do you want to talk about it?’

‘Not now. Let’s go out later in the week though? Or come over to mine? I’ll tell you all about it then, promise.’

‘Okay. Are you all right? You look a little flushed.’

‘It’s just the alcohol. I’ve not eaten today.’

Jessica looked up and saw the final person Dave must have been referring to. She tried not to grin but couldn’t stop herself. ‘Hugo? I didn’t know you were coming.’

‘Hugo’ was the stage name of a part-time magician she had met through Rowlands the previous year. His real name was Francis and his interest in taxidermy meant his flat was occupied by numerous stuffed animals. She had steadfastly refused to admit he actually helped her on a case but he had made things a bit clearer. From her previous experience, she knew he hugged everyone he met and, as he leant in, she didn’t refuse. He then hugged a bemused Carrie, then Adam, then Rowlands. The five of them squeezed into the booth together with Hugo on one end, then Dave, Adam, Jessica and Carrie.

Hugo was wearing a pair of shorts, despite it being pretty cold outside, with a dark T-shirt and a full tuxedo jacket with tails. He was very thin with longish brown hair and, as with the last time Jessica had met him, he was also wearing shoes that didn’t match.

Rowlands explained to the rest of the table that he knew Hugo from university and asked his friend if he had any new tricks. Hugo smiled dreamily and said he’d spent much of the last three weeks meditating but did pull a stuffed mouse out of his pocket to show them. Jessica thought he was a very peculiar man.

The interference squeak came over the speakers again as the quizmaster began talking. The next round was quotations. ‘Question twenty-one,’ the quizmaster said. ‘Who said; “Let them eat cake”?’

Dave leant in and whispered loudly, ‘Kipling.’

Jessica’s eruption of laughter was instant. Carrie didn’t know what was so funny and Rowlands clearly wasn’t sure either. Hugo was in a world of his own but Adam’s smile told Jessica that he knew what she was laughing at.

Jones had already written a K on the answer sheet and that made Jessica laugh even more. She thought she’d got over the giggles but the quizmaster repeated the question, which set her off again. Jones was getting annoyed because she clearly wanted to win, while the penny had dropped for Rowlands that he was wrong.

Finally Jessica managed to stop herself. ‘Kipling’s the guy who makes the cakes, you dick. It’s Marie Antoinette.’

Adam nodded to indicate the answer was correct and Jessica was really enjoying herself. Hugo began to join in and got a few correct but Adam’s knowledge didn’t extend to ‘sport’ or ‘the animal kingdom’. Carrie caused a mini scene by shouting at a man for using his phone during the quiz. He insisted he was just texting his girlfriend but she was having none of it. Rowlands calmed the situation by telling the guy not to mess with the ‘Terminator’, which quietened them both.

In the second drinks break, Hugo finally relented in the face of Dave’s pestering, taking a deck of cards from his jacket pocket and handed them to Carrie. He told each of them to choose a card then put them back in the pack while he went to the bar.

When he returned, he took the deck back and worked his way through each person, predicting which card they had opted for.