She was on her way into the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Telling the dog to wait a minute, she went to answer it. A man and a woman were standing on the step, and the woman said, ‘Mrs Peters?’ when she peered out at them.

Wary, because they looked official, and she thought they might be from the council, that maybe someone had reported the dog for barking again, Marie folded her arms.

‘Yes.’

The woman flashed a police badge at her.

‘I’m DS Strachan, and this is my colleague, DC Ogden. Is Evan Peters your husband?’

Marie frowned.

‘Yes. But if you’re hoping to find him here, you’re out of luck, ’cos he walked out a month ago, and I haven’t seen him since.’

‘Can we come inside?’ Strachan asked, her face giving nothing away.

The dog bounded into the hall and started barking. Grabbing his collar to stop him from going for the pair, Marie said, ‘Just give me a sec to put him in the kitchen,’ and closed the door.

Something in the woman’s tone had unsettled her, so she locked the dog away before letting the officers in.

‘Sorry about the mess,’ she apologized, rushing into the living room ahead of them and scooping up the empty bottles on the hearth, and the chocolate wrappers littering the floor and sofa.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Strachan said, sitting on an armchair as Ogden took a seat at the end of the sofa.

Conscious of the stench of stale cigarette smoke and unwashed dog, Marie perched at the other end of the sofa and stuffed the rubbish out of sight down the side.

‘So what’s going on?’ she asked, looking at them in turn.

‘A car was found last week in Derbyshire,’ Strachan said, resting her elbows on her knees. ‘It was burned out, but we’ve managed to salvage the chassis number, and it came back as a Volvo estate registered to this address. Could you confirm that your husband still owns it?’

‘As far as I know?’ Marie shrugged. ‘But I haven’t seen him since he walked out, so he could have sold it, for all I know.’ Then, frowning, she said, ‘Here, I hope you don’t think I set it on fire to get revenge, or something, ’cos I don’t even know where he is.’

‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but there was a body inside the vehicle,’ Strachan said. ‘And we’re trying to establish if it’s your husband.’

‘What?’ Sure that she’d misheard, Marie drew her head back. ‘Are you serious?’

Strachan nodded, and Ogden said, ‘I’ll make a brew,’ when Marie’s face drained of colour.

He left the room, and the dog started barking again, followed by the sound of the back door being opened, and claws skittering across the floor tiles before it closed again.