‘No idea, Leo. No idea. I just can’t . . .’

And she had drifted off again.

Not until she woke up several hours after that had she stayed awake. And curled up in the foetal position, too tired to talk, she had let the tears and snot flow freely, dripping onto the pillow until it was so wet he asked a nurse for a new one.

‘I don’t want it,’ she’d said when the nurse came back to top up her sedative. ‘I don’t want it.’

‘The police would like to talk to you when you feel up to it. Do you think you can handle it?’

‘Is it Karen?’

‘No,’ the nurse had replied. ‘It’s a male detective. Loots, I think.’

‘Not now. Not yet.’

‘Can you talk to me?’ Leo had said after the door shut with a sucking sound.

And she had nodded.

*

And that is why Leo Friis is now the only one, aside from Luna herself, who knows exactly what happened when Billy Formby returned to the house on Frisel after dropping Brynn off at the maternity ward.

She had let him in without question when he said he needed to talk to her. That he had something important to tell her. She wasn’t in bed yet anyway, so why not?

Of course, at some point, she had turned her back, maybe to fetch something to drink, she can’t remember. Why wouldn’t she turn her back? It was just Billy.

She doesn’t remember a blow, just a hand around her throat that had made the world go dark. Her hands tied tightly behind her back when she woke up. She couldn’t see, something over her head, something else in her mouth. The panic when she heard her scream muffled by the rag. The pain in her wrists when Billy half pushed, half dragged her out to the car. The realisation that she had no idea what was going to happen next.

That she might never see her children again.

That was as far as she had made it. Then she’d closed her eyes. He’d figured she’d gone back to sleep until she suddenly spoke again.

‘He’s my son,’ she’d said.

‘I know. Karen told me.’

‘Do you know where he is now?’

Leo had hesitated. It wasn’t for him to tell. But who else would? This Loots character? Was she supposed to have to hear it from a stranger?’

So he’d told her.

About the car crash. That Billy was being kept sedated. That it was unclear if he would pull through.

She hadn’t asked where he was. Leo had been glad for it. No assurances about guards or police officers would have helped against the knowledge that the only thing between her and Billy were a few measly floors.

‘I hope he pulls through,’ she’d said.