‘I’m going to head back to Eastbourne,’ Emer said. ‘There’s no point staying in London. We can’t do anything here. You should come with me. There’s plenty of room at Dee’s, and she’s already said you’re welcome to stay.’

‘Does this mean you’re not giving up then?’

‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’ Emer said. ‘But we’ve come this far, it doesn’t seem right to just turn around and go home. Besides, it’s not all about me, is it? You’ve got a say in this too. You deserve to know what happened to Lucy.’

‘Thanks.’ Maeve reached out and squeezed Emer’s hand. ‘That means a lot, Emer.’

‘It’s okay,’ Emer said, some of her bad mood evaporating. The truth was, this was an impossible situation for both of them. She’d have to try harder to keep her emotions in check and get on with Maeve as best she could.

‘I’m not sure about going to Eastbourne, though,’ Maeve said.

‘Why not?’

‘It’s like you said, we don’t know who we can trust. It makes more sense for us to do this alone for now. Until we know exactly what’s going on.’

Emer didn’t say anything. She’d liked Dee so far, and trusted her. But maybe Maeve was right.

‘So if we don’t go to Eastbourne,’ she said, ‘what do we do?’

‘I guess we need to make a plan,’ Maeve said.

‘Dee told me last night that Annie’s father was convicted of murder,’ Emer said. ‘Let’s go online now and see what we can find out. The family live somewhere near Eastbourne. I can’t remember the name of the town, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find.’

‘Eastbourne’s in East Sussex,’ Maeve said, taking her phone out of her pocket. ‘We can start by looking up Holden and East Sussex and murder. Do you know the father’s first name?’

Emer felt some of the tension draining from her body. It was good to finally feel that she and Maeve were together in this. Dee had been great, but Maeve and Emer had a shared history, a shared sense of loss, that united them in a completely different way.

‘I’ve got it.’ Maeve looked up at Emer. ‘The village is called Alfriston. Get your phone out and look up Michael Holden and Alfriston.’

Emer took her phone out of her bag and typed into her browser. The results came back almost immediately and she started reading. When she’d finished, she looked up at Maeve, frowning.

‘It doesn’t make sense.’

‘I know,’ Maeve said. ‘It’s such an odd story. Why would anyone kill a complete stranger for no reason?’

‘We don’t know the victim was a stranger,’ Emer said. ‘Holden never said why he killed that man, but clearly he had a reason.’