My mobile phone pings, and I scrabble around to find my handbag, then scrabble around a bit more to find my phone inside it. Maybe it’s Tom.

It’s not.

It’s an email. From a name I don’t recognise. Someone called Jess Caton. I don’t know a Jess Caton. Normally I’d assume it was spam, but I know it’s not. I know, because the subject line is TOM RAMSAY.

33

From: Jess Caton

To: Grace O’Sullivan

Subject: TOM RAMSAY

Dear Grace,

You probably don’t know who I am. My name’s Jess. I’m Tom’s ex. I’m emailing you to warn you about the person Tom is. I hope I’ve managed to track you down before you got to find out for yourself.

To be honest, I don’t know what good this email will do. If you’ve already found out what Tom’s like, who he really is, then it’s too late. If you haven’t found out yet, you’re probably not going to believe me when I tell you. I wouldn’t have believed it either if someone had told me. But I can’t sit back and do nothing. I need to warn you.

I bet he calls you Butterfly. He does that. You might not like it — I didn’t — but he still does it. There’s a reason for it. I bet I can tell you some other things about your life right now. I bet you’ve fallen out with friends and family and aren’t quite sure why. I bet something’s gone wrong at work. Did you let him move in with you to get him out of ‘his boss’s flat’?

I bet he also told you his parents were dead. They’re not. They’re very much alive. I was with Tom until he moved up your way. When I started to have my suspicions about Tom, I did some digging. That’s how I found out his parents are still alive. That’s how I found out a lot of things about Tom Ramsay. They don’t talk to him. They disowned him long ago because of the person he is and the things he’s done to them. There’s a reason he makes out they’re dead.

I bet he told you his previous ex, Erin, left him and won’t let him see his daughter. That’s not true either.

I don’t want to go into detail about either of those things in an email. All you need to know right now is that Tom Ramsay is a pathological liar.

I managed to get out. I was lucky. I believe there are others who haven’t been so lucky, or won’t be so lucky.

I don’t know what I can say to make you believe me. Please, Grace, look deep inside your soul and ask yourself if you think Tom is the perfect gentleman he makes himself out to be. If you have even the slightest shred of doubt, GET OUT. He is dangerous.

You probably think I’m a psychopath or deranged. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m a police officer with Devon and Cornwall Police. I’m based in Bodmin. My collar number is 19442. You can look me up and see I’m real and credible.