Dee had promised Ed she would stay away from Annie Holden. But even as she’d made the promise, Dee knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it. The memory of that note in the hallway of the empty house had stuck in her head. Which was why, a few hours after Ed left, she got in her car and drove back to Alfriston.

As she approached the house, she noticed a silver Lexus parked on the road a few metres from the entrance. She drove past it and parked further along, beyond the next curve in the road, so her car couldn’t be seen from the entrance to the house. Walking back, she looked inside the Lexus, trying to work out why someone would park all the way out here. Apart from a few houses, all with their own driveways, there was nothing here except miles of rolling green fields. She supposed someone might park there if they’d driven out here for a walk. Although, Dee knew there were plenty of better places to park if you fancied a walk on the downs near Alfriston.

It was a hire car. A sticker with the name of the hire company was on the back window. There was no one inside the car. Dee looked up and down the road, but she was the only person here. Peering through the driver’s window, there was nothing inside the car to give any indication of who had driven it here.

It was possible, she supposed, that the person driving the car was visiting one of the other houses along this stretch of road. Possible, but unlikely. The most logical explanation was that the driver of the silver Lexus had done the same thing she was doing now – parking a few metres along the road from Fiona Holden’s house so she could approach the house without anyone inside knowing about it.

At the entrance to the driveway, Dee paused, checking the house and the garden for any sign there was someone else here. But everything seemed unchanged from earlier today.

This time, she’d brought a wire coat hanger with her. She hoped it would be the perfect tool for reaching inside the letterbox and retrieving the note. She’d unwound the hanger before leaving her house. Clutching it now, she approached the front door and rang the bell.

When no one answered, she crouched down, just as she’d done earlier, and peered through the letterbox. But the tiled floor was bare. The piece of paper, with Annie’s name handwritten across the front of it, was gone.

‘Who’s taken it?’

Dee looked at the wire coat hanger in her hand, as if it might have the answer.

‘Damn it.’

She straightened up and was considering what to do next when a voice behind her made her jump.

‘There’s no one at home.’