A quarter of an hour later, Meg left Hove station in bright, warm, late-afternoon sunshine and walked down towards her house. She passed a row of large, terraced Victorian houses. In one front garden she passed, a couple were sitting on a bench in shorts with a bottle of wine in a bucket on the table in front of them, soaking up the rays. A little further down the street she smelled smoke from a barbecue. Normality. Everyone seemed to be having a pleasant afternoon, going into a pleasant evening. Just doing normal stuff.

Everyone except herself. She walked with fear curling in her stomach, enveloped in a darkness blacker than her shadow that glided beside her.

The forecast was good for the next few days, getting increasingly warm, maybe an early summer heatwave. Usually, she’d have made plans. Maybe changed into her swimming cozzie and taken a book down to the beach. Or called Ali and suggested meeting at their favourite seafront bar for a cocktail. But she just wanted to be home, indoors with her thoughts, all the doors bolted.

Thank goodness the house would be more secure now. Last night she’d had the locks changed by an emergency locksmith who’d charged her an outrageous amount. But she didn’t care. At least that evil bastard who had called her on Saturday evening wouldn’t find it quite so easy to invade her home now.

She opened the front door and was greeted by Daphne, who looked at her like she would have called the RSPCA if she knew how to dial a phone. On the floor, among a couple of envelopes that looked like bills, was a brown Amazon package.

Closing the door, she knelt and stroked the cat. ‘Hey, beautiful! What’s your problem?’ Then she prised open the package and saw it was an old movie she’d ordered after one of the jurors had mentioned it last week. Twelve Angry Men. What had particularly interested her about the film, when she’d looked it up online later, was its subject. It was about a juror who had, one by one, changed the minds of all his fellow jurors from a guilty to an innocent verdict. She would watch it this evening.

‘You hungry, Daffers? Let me get you some food. Your mummy has had a busy day. Want me to tell you about it? They made me foreperson. Impressed?’

As she walked across the hall, Meg continued chatting to the cat. ‘We heard the opening statement from the prosecution this morning. Then all afternoon we were sequestered in the jury room, because there were more legal arguments going on in court. I’m not really sure what legal arguments are, but I guess they’re important and hey, it meant I got to leave the court a little early. I’ll bet you’re glad about that, aren’t—’