With the Weston enquiry going nowhere, it seemed to Diane Fry that her interviews with Maggie Crew were a kind of Eastern Front, the one place where the breakthrough might come, if there was going to be one. Maggie was their only real witness. She could identify her assailant. However she did it, Fry would have to drag those memories out kicking and screaming. So she sat here alone with this woman, struggling to get through to her, digging for her memories like a miner hitting rock.

‘Have you thought about what we said last time?’ asked Fry.

But Maggie responded with another question.

‘Do you know how many visitors I get?’

‘No.’

‘Do you know what it’s like sitting here wondering whether anybody will come?’

‘I’m sorry.’

Maggie slammed back the arm of the lamp as far as it would go, throwing the full glare of the bulb into Fry’s face.

‘That’s the one thing I told you I wouldn’t tolerate. Do not feel sorry for me. Understand?’

Fry had to bite back the natural response, reminding herself that this was a woman who was in a psychologically delicate balance. She needed careful handling, not an all-out row. Not the accusation of self-pity and hypocrisy that had sprung to her lips.

‘Let’s start again, shall we?’

‘Be my guest.’

‘What I’d really like to do,’ said Fry, ‘is take you back to when it happened, to jog your memory. I want you to try again, Maggie.’

‘Why should I?’

‘For Jenny Weston’s sake. And to help us stop him from killing any more. Maggie – you can’t refuse.’

Maggie blinked, and hesitated. ‘Your colleagues always used a different approach. They tried to be sympathetic, to put me at my ease – all that sort of thing. I hated it.’

‘I don’t care about that. I’ve got a job to do. I need you to help me.’

Maggie stared at her. ‘Coffee?’ she said, and reached for the cafetiere.

Fry nodded. Her clenched fingers began to relax. She looked around the room while Maggie poured. The place really wasn’t welcoming at all, even with a comfortable chair and the smell of fresh coffee. What would bring Maggie’s memories out into the light again? When you had suffered that sort of trauma, you needed some kind of closure. It was possible that her memories wouldn’t be fully released until they had her attacker behind bars.

On the other hand, there might be something deeper inside that was keeping Maggie’s mind shut down. She had to find a trigger that would release those memories.