He’d dropped all pretence now. There was only one reason for that. He was planning to get rid of her. He’d stopped caring about what he said because he thought she wouldn’t get the chance to tell anyone.

‘What happened to Lucy was an accident,’ he continued, ‘but it was hardly my fault. Those girls shouldn’t have been out that night. And they certainly shouldn’t have been sneaking into a house that didn’t belong to them, seeing things they weren’t meant to see.’

‘Why did you drive after them?’ Emer said. ‘If you didn’t mean to kill them?’

‘I needed to find out how much they’d seen. They were young girls – easy for them to misinterpret things.’

‘What things, exactly?’ Emer said, remembering the scene in the bedroom that Kitty had described to her.

‘It was a networking event,’ Robert said, ‘Your mother organised them for me. It’s never easy for important people to get together and let their hair down a bit. There’s always someone watching you, ready to judge or jump to the wrong conclusion. Your mother came up with the idea of organising some private events, away from prying eyes. They were very popular for a time, until those stupid girls turned up and ruined everything. Because, of course, they had to stop after that.’

‘What about Lucy?’ Emer said.

‘You mean what happened to her? Well, she was already dead. It was an accident, like I said. There was no need for anyone else to know what had happened. I buried her in the woods.’

‘You sick bastard.’

Emer leaned her head back then threw it forward, her forehead smashing into his face. With a roar, he let her go and staggered back, hands over his damaged face. She twisted away from him but his hand shot out, grabbing her and pulling her back. His hand wrapped around her neck, blocking the air.

She struggled against him, kicking and lashing out with her hands. She heard him say something, but she didn’t catch the words, and suddenly he was falling backwards, taking her with him.

He hit the ground first, cushioning her fall. She rolled off him, scrabbling to get away but she wasn’t fast enough. He grabbed her and suddenly he was on top of her, the weight of his body pressing into her, his fists punching her shoulders, her head, her back.

She was lying on her stomach, face down in the gravel. Stones in her mouth as the punches kept coming. She tried to crawl forward but she couldn’t move. He was too heavy, making it impossible for her to breathe. Her hands flailed on the gravel, trying to find something she could hold onto to pull herself forward. Darkness was creeping in from the outer corners of her eyes. The world fading out as the punches kept coming.