Anne Armstrong had employed a clean-shaven young solicitor in an expensive suit to represent and advise Jessica. He turned to his client.

‘They have to release you in a couple of hours.’

‘Unless we charge her,’ Ian pointed out.

The solicitor returned Ian’s glare impassively. Jessica seemed increasingly agitated, demanding to see her baby.

‘Tell us again about Jason’s disappearance,’ Geraldine said gently.

‘He went off to a stag do and never came back,’ Jessica snapped. ‘I’ve told you again and again. That’s all I know. He didn’t come home, and then ten days later the police knocked on my door and told me they’d found his body. He was dead.’

She broke off, as though she was overcome by emotion, but she dropped her face in her hands and Geraldine could not see her expression.

‘Only Jason never went to a stag do.’ Ian leaned forward and spoke very slowly and clearly. ‘We’ve questioned all his friends and can find no evidence he ever went anywhere. We have a witness who claims you killed your husband because he physically abused you on a regular basis, and you were terrified he might injure your baby.’

Jessica hesitated and glanced at her lawyer who gave a slight shake of his head.

‘No comment,’ Jessica said.

‘Is it true Jason used to hit you?’ Geraldine asked.

‘No comment.’

‘We have medical evidence that suggests you suffered injuries over a prolonged period of time,’ Geraldine pressed on. ‘If you were provoked, were in terror of your life, and fearful for the life of your baby, a jury is bound to view your actions sympathetically –’

The lawyer interrupted. ‘This is harassment and my client is not going to respond. My client would like to go home now, with Daisy. She has not been charged with any crime.’

‘Very well,’ Ian said. ‘We’re charging her now. Is that what you want?’

He proceeded to read Jessica her rights and charge her with the murder of Jason Colman and David Armstrong. Her reaction was surprising.

‘David Armstrong?’ she repeated, her face flushing with some undefinable emotion. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘You know your father was murdered?’

‘Murdered?’ She sounded genuinely shocked. ‘I knew he was dead. He died. It was – they told us he suffered a fatal haemorrhage.’

‘He ingested a fatal dose of drugs, and when he collapsed, he was suffocated. He was murdered, Jessica,’ Ian said.

‘No, no, he can’t have been,’ Jessica replied.

She looked shocked.

‘Where did you kill your husband?’ Ian demanded, returning to the crime the suspect had not denied.

Jessica shook her head. ‘He was my father,’ she stammered. ‘How can you think I was responsible? He was my father.’

But she did not deny having killed her husband.

‘Did you kill Jason at home or had you gone out?’

‘He deserved it,’ was all she said.