At that point Jesse couldn't control himself any longer. Whether it was the drink in his system, or the constant antagonism from Eric, it didn't matter, he lost it. He lunged across the table, the glasses flew aside and tumbled, spilling their contents onto the plush carpet; while Jesse quickly had Eric by the throat. Knees up on the table, that rocked precariously beneath his weight, Jesse kept Eric pressed hard against the back of his chair, both hands wrapped around his neck.

Eric appeared so shocked by the sudden attack that he made no move to defend himself. His eyes, though, were narrowed in anger as he clutched at Jesse's wrists to try and stop the man from choking the life out of him. The commotion had drawn the attention of the whole pub, yet no one came any closer nor made any move to stop them, they just watched unable to tear their eyes away. It was like watching a car crash.

Do something, the voice in my head grabbed at my attention, he can't kill him here, he didn't even admit to being guilty. Though that fact was neither here nor there for Jesse by that point, the slight on his sisters character had been more than enough to tip him over the edge. But it couldn't be this simple, a random rage killing wouldn't cut it, the intent would be all wrong, the corruption wouldn't take and I'd face returning to Hell a failure. They were already dissatisfied with my performance on my last case, I couldn't head back after a month – a month too long at that – with nothing to show for my effort. I may as well hire the hit-man myself.

At the voice's insistence I jumped to my feet, this was an incident where I really did need to interfere. I rushed to their table side and tugged, fruitlessly, at Jesse's shoulder; I wanted to pull him off, but I also didn't want to send the wobbly table falling to the floor.

“Don't you dare insult my sister like that!” Jesse hissed through gritted teeth. “You're a dirty liar, what did you do to her? Tell the truth.”

“Jesse, let him go, you're going to kill him,” I shouted, giving up on trying to pull his arms away.

I watched his fingers tighten; he wanted to do it, he wanted to kill him right in that moment, with over a dozen witnesses watching on. But if I talked him out of it now, would he still be so keen to spill Eric's blood later once we knew for sure where the guilt lay? It was too hard to be sure and I felt so torn between tearing him away and letting him carry on choking the life out of the man.

It won't work, you know it won't work. Not yet. Eric's face had turned bright red and he drew large, panicked welts along Jesse's arms with his nails. Oh, for fuck's sake.

“Dammit!” I shouted, rolling my eyes. I shoved over the wobbling table that Jesse had planted himself on top of. “Let go.”

The instant he felt his balance going Jesse loosened his grip. He pitched forwards as the table fell and sent Eric's chair tumbling backwards. Eric hit the floor with a heavy thud and just about managed to pull his legs out of the way before the table went and Jesse crashed onto the floor next to him. It was then that all hell seemed to break loose.

Not at all stunned by the fall, Jesse was soon up on his knees and he lunged for Eric again, fists flying as he aimed strike after strike at Eric's face. He'd raised his arms to try and block the blows but Jesse was relentless. I stepped in between them and caught Jesse's wrist, squeezing hard as I let a little taste of my preternatural strength leech out, and stopped him in his tracks.

“That's enough, Jesse, please. Just let him up.” My voice was cold and firm as I stared him straight in the eye. He looked up at me like he didn't recognise who I was, perhaps he was seeing a glimpse of the real me for the first time, and I couldn't judge what he saw in me.

Eric didn't miss a trick. While I held Jesse back from attacking him, he rolled up off of the floor and stood, rubbing the red marks around his neck and the bruises that must be forming on his arms as he cowered from the attack. I was surprised he didn't try to attack Jesse back while he was distracted and unable to defend himself, but he stepped away, successfully blowing all of the assumptions I had made about him – well almost all of them anyway.

He dusted off his suit, straightened his tie and shook his head. “You're all the same, family of psychos. I should be glad to be shot of the lot of you.”

Jesse sat back on his heels looking dejected and even a little ashamed of himself. “What happened to my sister?” he muttered softly, voice on the verge of cracking.

Eric shook his head. “No, after that I'm tell you nothing.” He sneered and leaned in closer so that the crowd, who were still much too interested, couldn't hear what he said. “If you really want to know something, why don't you go talk to your mother? She knows just as much as I do.”

A strange look of surprise dropped over Eric's face and he appeared panicked for a moment, confused about why he'd just said that. The potion had done its job nicely, he'd let slip something he'd never intended to reveal, the only problem was it didn't help me much.

Was Eric guilty? He certainly had motive if his words about Jen were true, so was he trying to pass the buck onto Maura, was she just an unfortunate pawn in all of this, caught with too much information? Or did she also have something to hide? Surely she couldn't have had a hand in the death of her own daughter, then again so many years of this job had taught me the very worst that people are capable of. And still it could even be neither of them who was responsible, and if so who did the guilt rest with? So many questions, and the only thing I could be sure of was the fact that they both knew something, and had somehow tied themselves together in this tragedy.

As much as Eric wanted to be free of them all, while Maura shared this information, this secret, such a split could and would never happen.

Eric straightened himself back up quickly and smoothed his hair, a nervous gesture as he tried to forget about the slip he'd just made. His eyes scanned the crowd that had finally started to disperse now the action was over - though one of the barmen hovered nearby waiting assess the damage – and I followed Eric's gaze to Jesse's mother. He was searching her out for some reason, when he'd been so keen to avoid her earlier, and I needed to know what that reason was.

“Think I deserve another drink after nearly being killed,” Eric said, then he hurried off to the bar, a hand clasping Maura's shoulder as he passed, beckoning her to follow him.

Keeping one eye on the pair of them, I helped Jesse up off of the floor. Patrick was there to help me. I couldn't pin point exactly when he'd appeared beside us, but I was actually rather grateful for his help.

“Come on son, let's go and sit down for a bit,” he said, taking Jesse by the arm and leading him off to a large, square table by the window. I followed them, a pace or two behind, constantly looking over my shoulder to where Maura was doing her best to ignore her son-in-law, she must have still been sore from his snubbing her earlier.

“Thank you, for stepping in there, Heather. I fear I would have been too late.” Patrick said to me with a nod as I stood beside the table. I wasn't going to sit down, not when I was sure I'd have to dash off soon and keep and eye on the scheming pair over by the bar.

“No problem.”

“Do you know anything about what he was saying, Dad? Him and Mum have some big secret about Jen? What the fuck has been happening with this family?”

“Honestly, I don't know son. I admit it's been troubling me for a while, but I suppose I've just been hoping that it was all my imagination. All I do know for certain is that Jen wanted to leave Eric. She confided in me, not that long before she died, that she'd contacted a solicitor and wanted to be sure that I would support her in her decision.”

“She wanted a divorce, why? I mean I can't really blame her, but despite what Eric's like with everyone else they'd always seemed to be pretty happy,” Jesse asked.

“She never said, and I didn't ask.”

“Do you think she told Maura about this as well?” I had to ask, a frown creasing my brow as the events started to form up in my head.

“Not while I was there, but I would imagine so. She used to tell her mother everything.”

Is that what Eric had meant? Maura had discovered this secret, and being of so fond of her delightful son-in-law, rushed off to warn him. Then he'd gone and taken things into his own hands and killed her before she could leave, hoping it would look like an accident. It would work out better for him if she was gone forever.

I glanced over my shoulder and caught sight of Eric leading Maura out the back door of the pub and into the damp and dim car park, she must have finally relented to his pestering her. Heart thudding wildly in my chest with the story I had just pieced together, I quickly turned on my heel and rushed after them.

“Heather, where are you going?” Jesse called after me, but I didn't so much as look back.

How long would it take him to put two and two together and draw the same conclusion that I had? Or would he just follow me out of curiosity and a strange sense of obligation? Either way it wouldn't matter so long as he came, it was my job to make sure neither of them could get away.

This was it, the time for vengeance was upon us both, and I was not going to let it slip through my fingers.

The car park was little more than an alleyway with a small square at one end, just large enough to occupy around three or four cars; though at that moment it housed more large Biffa bins that it did cars.

I quietly slipped out through the door, holding it slightly ajar so that it wouldn't slam closed and disturb the two voices I was so intent upon listening to. One of the large bins was quite conveniently sat right beside the door, so I crouched low behind it; wrinkling my nose at the smell it gave off. I would tolerate it for the sake of hearing those two speak.

Their voices carried from over the far side of the small square of concrete, echoing off of the high walls of the pub and the buildings that surrounded it so that, although I couldn't see them, I could hear them loud and clear. There was no denying those voices belonged to the two people I sought.

“Was there really any need to drag me all the way out here, Eric? The place smells foul.”

“Well, I didn't think you'd much care to have this conversation with an audience.”

“I don't much care to have this conversation at all. Why bring it up again? It's over, she's been buried, this is the end. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go back inside and find my husband. It's almost lunch time.”

I heard footsteps coming towards me, could actually see the shine of her shoes between the bin's wheels, and I readied myself to bolt back through the door. Frustrating as it would be to have learned so little, I couldn't let her catch me eavesdropping. But Eric's loud exclamation made both Maura and I visibly jump.

“Your son knows something! Or at least he knows that we know something. Do you really think he's going to just drop it? Pig headed and stubborn as he is.”

The shoes turned back around, and I heard their sharp staccato rhythm click out across the concrete as Maura hurried back towards Eric. I could almost taste the tension that rolled off of her as she walked.

“Oh I am well aware of what my son knows. Practically everyone in the whole pub knows. Thank goodness you held your tongue enough not to let anything else slip. What on earth got into you?” It wasn't a question, not one she wanted an answer to, her disapproval rang clear in her tone of voice.

“And here I thought you had such faith in me, Maura. Weren't you the one so keen to warn me that Jen wanted a divorce, that she was going to run away with that sleazy office junior she'd been seeing for months? Seems we both have an issue with letting things slip.”

“You knew about him?” Maura asked, sounding mildly surprised. Maybe she hadn't shared the whole story with Eric after all.

“Oh yes, I knew about him. Cost me a pretty penny to find out too, private investigators don't come cheap. Almost cost me my job even, if I'd not been clever enough to cover up my expenses. She might not have managed to divorce me, but I'm still paying for what she did. Maybe it's about time you started to pick up some of the slack. You helped create this mess after all, you deal with your son.”

“Like you dealt with my daughter?” Maura's voice verged on hysterical as those words left her mouth, but a moment of tense silence stretched out between them and when she continued she was her calm and composed self once more. “I will not allow you to cause this to unravel around us. I've already lost enough.”

“Just wanted to warn you, that's all. He's not going to drop it, but it's unlikely he'll find anything out either. I mean let's face it he's not the brightest of sparks now is he? But, just be aware, he'll be poking his nose in. And like I said, have a little faith in me.”

I almost lost the thread of Eric's words when the door that I still held open slightly was wrenched from my grasp. It was Jesse.

“Heather, what...” he started to say, much too loudly for my liking. He couldn't give us away, not when the conversation was just getting interesting.

“Shhh,” I hissed, pressing a finger to my lips. I tugged at his arm and pulled him down low beside me. “Listen.”

Jesse had a fork and a steak knife in his hand, the pub served food and he must have found his appetite after all the action with Eric. Was that why he had come to find me, to ask what I wanted for lunch? I refrained from shaking my head, he had disappointed me in his lack of curiosity, but still at least he was there, and at just the right time.

“I should have lost all faith in you Eric, the moment that you had my daughter killed.”