“That’s it, that’s exactly it. Sex with Alison was like living your fantasies. In a funny kind of way, I was almost glad when Claire found out. I thought that her knowing would break the spell, that I’d be able to escape Alison. But it didn’t work, did it? Even though she’s dead, I’m still her prisoner.”

“What actually happened that last afternoon?”

Jackie sighed. “I told Claire I was going to end it, and I went round there all fired up with determination. Alison opened the door to me stark naked, and it took all my strength not to dive straight into bed with her then and there. But I made myself go through with it. I told her what I had decided, that I wanted Claire, not her.

“First, she tried to be seductive and talk me out of it. But I managed to stay firm. Then she lost her cool. Or at least, she seemed to. She burst into loud sobs and told me how much I meant to her and how she couldn’t let me go. I was shaken to the core. I had to keep reminding myself that it was Claire I loved. It wasn’t easy to hang on to that, faced with Alison in floods of tears.

“Then, when she saw that wasn’t going to work, she started to threaten me. She told me she’d tell Claire all sorts of lies—that we’d had a threesome with a man, that I’d gone out with her to a club and we’d picked up two men and had sex with them, that we’d been using cocaine to improve our sex life. Oh God, you wouldn’t believe the filth she was coming out with! And she said she’d spread all this poison round the city, make sure that no one gave me any work.” Jackie’s voice cracked, and she lit another cigarette.

Lindsay nodded sympathetically. “I know exactly what you mean. She tried the same routine on me. But I just laughed at her. I didn’t have a lover to lose at the time, and I knew she couldn’t destroy me professionally without damaging herself. The gamble paid off for me. But if she’d tried that on when I’d actually been with someone I loved, I doubt if I’d have been able to be clear-headed about it. You mustn’t put yourself down for falling for it.”