When the three of them went into the house, they heard hysterical weeping from upstairs. Tom led the way up and found Gail lying on the bed, her face bruised and scratched.

‘Don’t let him hit me again!’ she yelled as Tom stood gaping in the doorway. She put up one arm as if to protect her face.

He couldn’t move, so shocked was he by this accusation.

Jane moved forward. ‘What happened? I saw you standing at the window after Tom left. You weren’t hurt or upset then.’

‘You couldn’t have seen me. He hit me and left me lying on the bed.’

The nephew cleared his throat to get their attention. ‘I think I should call someone in, if she’s alleging assault. Perhaps you’d come downstairs with me, Mr Prichard? And if you could stay with Mrs Prichard, Auntie Jane?’

Tom sat numbly on the couch, listening to the nephew report the alleged assault to his sergeant. Gail had promised to make him sorry and was doing it already. But surely she couldn’t make this accusation stick? He hadn’t touched her.

He waited in silence for the police to arrive, then answered their questions with the simple truth. The woman officer looked down and he saw she was studying his hands.

‘You haven’t washed your hands recently?’

He looked at her in puzzlement. ‘No.’

‘Don’t wash them.’

Tom could only stare after her in puzzlement as she took Dean aside and spoke earnestly to him in a low voice.

When she came back, she asked, ‘Is there anyone you want to ring?’

His mind refused to function for a minute or two then he nodded. ‘My father. Um – my biological father, that is. He’s in London. Is that all right?’

‘Go ahead, Mr Prichard.’

He took out the card with Jez’s number on it and prayed that his father would answer. But it was Donna. She took the details and advised him to say nothing further to the police. She’d get a lawyer on the case straight away to represent him.

Tom sat in numb dread, unable to think clearly, while people came and went, going up and down the stairs, tending Gail. Time seemed to pass very slowly.

He couldn’t believe this was happening.

What if his damned wife got the children and had him prosecuted? How could he protect them then? And what would his father think?

Donna phoned Jez’s lawyers straight away and they promised to find a colleague in the north who could step in. Only then did she go and wake Jez, who was having another of his naps.

‘I’m sorry. It’s bad news.’ She explained what had happened to Tom.

‘He didn’t do it.’

‘You can’t be sure of that.’

Jez looked at her. ‘You’ve met him. Does he look like a wife-beater?’

‘What do they look like? If you ask me, appearances are nothing to go by.’

‘Well, I can’t and won’t believe Tom did it. Has anyone rung his mother?’