I opened my eyes, caught a second’s glance of a bruised face, tear-stained, fear wild in her eyes, and it was all I could take. As swiftly as I could, I reached out and knocked the phone from his hand, sending it scuttling across the floor. At least now it was silent.

Michael just looked at me. His voice icy, calm, he spoke.

‘If you persuade a child they’re not good enough, if you drive that message home to them, then that stays with them throughout their entire lives. She lived in hell and then she killed herself. What was left of our family imploded. There has to be some form of justice for that, don’t you think? Someone has to be held accountable. Someone has to pay.’

‘But … It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t our fault. We were stupid little girls, but that’s all we were: children. I’m so sorry for your loss – she clearly meant the world to you. But hurting me isn’t going to bring her back. Killing Clare didn’t. Killing me won’t, either.’

He paused. For just a second I thought I was getting through to him. I saw a shift in his expression, as if my words were sinking in.

‘It won’t bring her back, but it’ll be justice. That’ll be a start.’

‘The police’ll trace you,’ I said, anger rising along with my fear. ‘They’ll find my phone. They’ll trace our messages. Get your details from the college. You won’t get away with this.’

He smirked. ‘Give me some credit. You don’t think I’ve told you the truth about me, do you?’

Chapter Forty-Nine

Elizabeth

DI Bradley had left the room to call the details in to his team that I’d given him.

‘What do you think’ll happen now?’ I asked Cliona as if she had the answers to everything.

She handed me a fresh tissue. The one in my shaking hand had already started to disintegrate from my tears.

‘I imagine they’ll want to speak to him as soon as possible, especially if there’s any chance at all that he may be responsible. They’ll want to try to find that poor woman who’s missing.’

‘I can’t imagine he would be responsible. He’s a good man. He’s always been a good man. I’d have known, surely, if he was capable of something like that …?’

‘You must try not to get yourself too upset,’ Cliona said, a worried look on her face. ‘Let’s wait until the police have spoken to him. Get all the information. It’s not wise to jump to conclusions. I know this is horribly distressing for you, but you’re still very vulnerable. I can speak to one of the nurses or the doctor to see if they’ll give you a sedative, maybe.’