‘Can you come and get me?’ I say, struggling to make the words audible.

‘Where are you, Becca? What’s going on?’

‘I’m at the nursing home. Oakridge, out near Braintree.’

Jeff says he’s on his way.

Leaning against a wall, I put my phone back in my pocket and rest my head in my hands. Everything is becoming clearer and more muddled at the same time.

I hear footsteps coming towards me. When I look up, Danny is standing there.

‘I’m not going inside,’ I say. ‘I don’t want to see her.’

Danny puts his hand around my shoulders.

‘What will I tell Dad?’ he says.

‘You can tell him whatever you want and you can stop calling him Dad. He’s not my father.’

‘But Becca, his heart is broken.’

‘My heart is broken, Danny. My heart.’

‘I know, I know.’ He squeezes me tightly and both of us stand in the embrace for a few moments, saying nothing. Then I pull away.

‘I’m not going in there, Danny. Jeff is coming to pick me up. You go, you be with him.’

Danny wants to wait with me until Jeff arrives but I tell him to go back inside, that I don’t need him to. Reluctantly he steps away.

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure.’

‘Well, I’ll give you a call if anything happens.’

It haunts me; my sister is dead, someone killed her.

‘Danny,’ I say as he walks away. ‘What were the cops doing at your house?’

‘Not now, Becca, I’m…’

‘What was in the bag, Danny? What did they take from the house?’

With his hand brushing back his hair, he takes a deep breath, Danny is as drained as I am.

‘They took a jacket, Becs, suspicious of what they thought was a blood stain on it. But it wasn’t. I hadn’t worn that jacket in a long time, guess they were covering all their tracks.’