McKenna writes down Jess’s name. ‘What was he investigated over?’

‘Uh, I don’t know exactly.’

‘So how do you know Jess Caton?’

‘She’s Tom’s ex.’

McKenna and Brennan share a look. It’s one I interpret as not being all that encouraging.

‘Okay. And how did you come into contact with her?’

‘She emailed me. She tracked me down when she found out Tom and I were dating. She wanted to warn me about him and tell me what he’s like. He’s a pathological liar. He tried to manipulate her too, and he was doing it to me. He attacked me. And when I found out what he was like, I had to run. He’s dangerous. You have to believe me.’

McKenna leans back in her chair. ‘What do you mean “what he’s like”?’

‘He lied to me. About everything. He told me his ex — the one before Jess — he told me she’d left him and taken their daughter with her. But she didn’t. She died. They both did. There was a car accident.’

McKenna glances at Brennan. ‘And was this investigated?’

‘Yeah. It was down in Cornwall. Tom was in the pub. They were going to pick him up.’

‘So he wasn’t involved in any way with the accident itself?’

‘Well, no. But he lied about it.’

‘Lying isn’t illegal, Grace. If he wasn’t involved in their deaths that doesn’t make him any sort of threat. It’s entirely up to him if he wanted to tell you about it or not. Maybe he didn’t want to have to explain what had happened.’

‘No. I know. But he told me his parents were dead too, but they’re not. They’re alive. I’ve seen them.’

‘Grace, I’m sorry, but I fail to see what this has to do with anything. I understand you might have been unhappy about all of that, and it’s entirely your decision if that’s something you wanted to end your relationship over, but I’m not sure it strikes me as justification for running him over.’

‘I didn’t run him over!’ I say, my voice getting louder. ‘He threw himself in front of my car!’

Brian puts his hand on my arm and leans in to whisper to me. He tells me it’d be a good idea for me to calm down. I’m angry, upset, but lucid enough to know that he’s got a fair point. Showing myself to be an aggressive person isn’t the sort of thing that’s likely to help cancel out a charge of attempted murder.

‘I think it would be best if my client and I took some time out to discuss matters,’ Brian says.

51

On Brian’s advice, we prepared a statement signed by me, which we gave to McKenna. In it, I repeated my denial of having assaulted Tom or having attempted to harm or injure him in any way, and went into detail about everything Tom had done to me, as well as the things Jess told me he’d done to her. I wanted to make sure they had absolutely everything on record, and that was my condition for agreeing to prepare a statement.