‘I’ve got nowhere else to go,’ Emer said.

‘I’m coming to get you. Annie… Kitty… took the car, but I can get a taxi.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Alfriston. That’s where you saw Robert, so we go there first. If we can’t find them, then we’ll think about where to go next.’

‘What about the police? Shouldn’t we call them and tell them Kitty’s in danger?’

‘They won’t take us seriously,’ Fiona said. ‘Kitty hasn’t been missing for long enough. But I’m friends with the detective who led the murder investigation. I think he might be willing to help. I’ll call him on my way to pick you up. Wait outside the hotel. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.’

Fiona seemed distracted when she arrived in the taxi to pick up Emer.

‘Something’s happened,’ she said, once Emer had climbed in beside her and put her seatbelt on. ‘The detective I told you about has just called. He says he needs to speak to me urgently.’

‘Any idea why?’

‘He said he didn’t want to tell me over the phone,’ Fiona said. ‘But I think it’s Michael. Kitty’s been trying to contact him since yesterday. He’s not answering his phone.’

‘But I saw him yesterday,’ Emer said. ‘I told you that. I spoke to him at his flat. He seemed fine.’

‘So why isn’t he answering Kitty’s calls?’

‘I don’t know,’ Emer said.

The truth was, she didn’t want to think about Michael Holden. She wanted to focus on the anger raging inside her. She was angry with everyone, including the woman sitting beside her in the back of the taxi. Because if Fiona had done the right thing years earlier, Emer would have known that her sister was still alive. And maybe if that had happened, all the other bad things in her life could have been avoided. The jobs she’d lost, the relationships she’d ruined, the God-awful mess she’d made of everything – how different things might have been if she’d only known the truth. And it wasn’t just herself she was angry for. There was Lucy’s family too. Her parents had gone to their graves never knowing what had happened to their daughter. All of it because Robert O’Brien had cared more about his reputation than doing the right thing.

By the time the taxi dropped them off at the house in Alfriston, Emer was ready to kill Robert with her bare hands when she found him. Jumping out of the taxi, not bothering to wait for Fiona, she ran to the house and started banging on the door.

‘Robert,’ she shouted. ‘Are you in there?’

‘Wait,’ Fiona said, coming to join her. ‘I’ve got a key. You don’t need to break the door down.’