‘I’ll get over it. Listen, Ed, I think Annie might be in danger. And I think it might be my fault. I was so stupid. I let that woman dupe me into believing she was my cousin. I practically handed Annie to her on a plate.’

Ed started to speak, but Dee interrupted him.

‘Hang on a second. If you came to London to speak to Annie, then I wasn’t mistaken, was I? That’s her house. You could have bloody told me that. I’ve spent the last few days wondering if I’m losing my mind.’

‘I suppose I could have told you. Sorry.’

The second time he’d apologised since he’d been here, Dee noted.

‘I was so surprised to see you there,’ he continued. ‘I wasn’t sure what to tell you.’

‘And the person who answered the door? Who was he?’

‘Louis Haynes. He’s married to an old school friend of Annie’s, apparently.’

‘Nick,’ Dee said, remembering the conversation she’d had with the Australian woman at the pub. ‘Landlord at the Town of Ramsgate.’

‘And you know this how?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Dee said. ‘Annie clearly asked Nick and his partner to cover for her.’

‘I can understand she might not have wanted to speak to you about her father and the murder,’ Ed said. ‘But to pretend she didn’t live there? Doesn’t that seem a bit extreme to you?’

‘Not if she’s hiding other secrets as well,’ Dee said.

‘Maybe.’ Ed didn’t sound convinced. ‘I’ve kept in touch with Fiona over the years, you know. I told myself it was because I hoped she might tell me the real reason Mike did what he did. But the truth is, I felt sorry for her. She’s a lovely woman, and she had such a terrible time during the trial. Keeping in touch seemed the decent thing to do.’

And there you had it. Decency, kindness, intelligence. Three things that, coupled with a wicked sense of humour and chocolate brown eyes, made it impossible to forget her feelings for him and get on with her life.

‘I’ve been trying to get in touch with her,’ Ed continued. ‘I don’t want her to hear about Michael from a stranger. But she’s not answering her phone and when I drove out to the house yesterday evening, there was no one there.’

‘So what do we do now?’

When she said this, she saw a trace of the old Ed. The one she’d fallen for so hard and so fast. A twinkling humour behind his eyes that sent her stomach somersaulting.

‘We?’

‘Yes, we. You came here today because you’re looking for answers. I’ve told you as much as I can, so what happens now?’