‘Let me just turn on the recorder, if you’re happy for me to tape this? Saves a few pencils.’

Becky nodded and started talking before she lost her nerve.

‘The woman was out of it. I didn’t recognize her at the time. I found out later on that she was an actress called Amber Heath.’

I was out of it for years. My name is Rebecca Shawcross.

The chief inspector wrote in her pad as the recorder ran.

‘I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. But it didn’t look happy. I don’t think it looked consensual, though I know you can’t tell. All I can tell you is that I was there. I saw them. I saw her.’

My arms and legs and lungs and stomach, all of me has hurt every day since I was sixteen.

‘The man’s name is Matthew Kingsman,’ she said. ‘He is my boss, at a film production company called Kingfisher Films.’

The man’s name is Adam Thewlis. He was once my best friend.

I am in the ninety per cent of people who know the identity of their rapist. I am ninety per cent.

‘It happened less than two weeks ago. The fifteenth of May. I went to drop off some wine at his house and I saw them together and then I left.’

It happened sixteen years ago. Very late one Saturday night, or early one Sunday morning.

‘I know she made a statement saying she’d been raped. She thought there was a witness and she asked them to come forward. I made a statement to the press where I said I supported my boss. I denied being there. I should have said something sooner. I should have come forward.’

I woke up and someone had had sex with me. There was nobody there. Nobody said anything to me afterwards. But it happened. Maisie is proof that it happened.

‘You’re here now. That’s what matters,’ said the detective, smiling a smile that wasn’t really a smile, and then she asked more questions: time of day, clothing, before, after.

He knows the truth. He knows that I need the truth, but then he’s always known that, and he kept it from me. He was there. I barely was.

‘Did anything prompt you to come forward now?’

Becky sat in a long silence.

Finally the detective said, ‘The matter will be joined up with the sexual offences unit and you will be informed if anyone is charged with the offence. You might be required for any court case that arises.’

The tape recorder clicked to a close. And Becky was free to go.