At that moment the only thing I want to do is slap him. I’m not given to violence, but somehow everything has become my fault. I’m the one who is apparently behaving badly, and I know with certainty that this is how it’s always been, but I was too blind to notice.

He takes my arm as we cross the road to the car park, and I can feel his fingers pinching my flesh. It seems that my refusal to cancel the holiday and my insistence that our relationship is over has unleashed something beyond the bitter words that spilled from his mouth before I left. I expected savage arguments, but not this. He is playing a game and I don’t know the rules.

CHAPTER 15

15

Sharon had been glued to the news every night for the past week. The police were still asking questions about the woman’s body at Pennington Flash; even after all this time they didn’t know who she was. Every time Sharon closed her eyes she saw the man shining his torch at her car, taking down her number. What if she was the only witness – the only person who could point the finger? What if the man was looking for her right now?

Sharon had tried to convince herself that any statement from her wasn’t worth having, that she knew nothing. Two people had got out of a car and only one had got back in. There could be a hundred reasons for what she had seen, and it might have nothing to do with this woman’s death.

The trouble was, Sharon couldn’t think of a single reason other than the obvious one. It was making her irritable and edgy, and Jez kept asking what was wrong. She blamed it on pre-wedding nerves, and he liked that, saying she had seemed blasé about their big day up until now, so he was glad she was feeling a buzz of excitement. The stress was stopping her from thinking clearly about the wedding, though. Her mum had called her at work to ask if she was away with the fairies for some reason, because she’d forgotten to order the cake.

She pulled her feet up onto the sofa and cuddled up to Jez. He felt lovely and warm, just as he always did. She was the one who was cold, with chills of fear running through her day and night.

The phone rang – their landline, which practically nobody used these days.

‘Bugger,’ Jez said. ‘Who the hell is that?’

She had no idea but knew he would get up to answer it. She would probably have let the answerphone take it.