The Glass Room (Vera Stanhope 5)

hurt. And she couldn’t bear the thought of him dripping around the place, disturbing her with his misery.
    ‘No!’ Joanna threw back her head and laughed. ‘What would I want with another man? I’m perfectly happy with the one I’ve got, and anyway, who else would have me?’
    ‘So what then?’ I can be as stubborn as you, lady.
    Perhaps Joanna realized that Vera wasn’t going to give up. Or perhaps she wanted to discuss the idea, put it into words. ‘I want a baby,’ she said. ‘Before it’s too late. I can’t be pregnant on the medication. And I thought I should have some financial security before bringing a child into the world. So I asked Paul for money. That’s what it’s all about.’
    ‘Does Jack know?’
    ‘No point telling Jack until I’ve made up my mind,’ Joanna said. ‘He’ll be so excited he won’t be able to contain himself. He’ll talk about nothing else.’
    ‘What’s the next move?’
    ‘I’ve made an appointment with the doctor to talk through the options. Very sensible. You should be proud of me, Vee.’
    Vera stood up and yawned. She needed a few hours’ sleep before she went back to the station. Joanna followed her to the door.
    ‘What about you?’ Joanna asked as they stood together, looking out down the valley. ‘Did you never want a child?’
    ‘Eh, pet, what sort of mother would I have made?’
    Vera stomped off towards her house. Both of them knew that wasn’t any sort of answer to the question.

Also by Ann Cleeves
    A Bird in the Hand
    Come Death and High Water
    Murder in Paradise
    A Prey to Murder
    A Lesson in Dying
    Murder in My Back Yard
    A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy
    Another Man’s Poison
    Killjoy
    The Mill on the Shore
    Sea Fever
    The Healers
    High Island Blues
    The Baby-Snatcher
    The Sleeping and the Dead
    Burial of Ghosts
    The Vera Stanhope series
    The Crow Trap
    Telling Tales
    Hidden Depths
    Silent Voices
    The Shetland series
    Raven Black
    White Nights
    Red Bones
    Blue Lightning

Acknowledgements
    Thanks to everyone who helped in the writing of this book, especially Julie, Helen, Naomi and Catherine at Macmillan and Sara Menguc and her team worldwide.
    I’m grateful to Paul Rutman who sparked the idea, and to Brenda, David, Wunmi and Elaine who have helped bring Vera to a wider readership.

First published 2012 by Macmillan
    This electronic edition published 2012 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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    ISBN 978-0230-76309-8 EPUB
    Copyright © Ann Cleeves 2012
    The right of Ann Cleeves to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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