I used the automatic controls to raise the head height of the bed and waited to see my niece. I was shocked to see Ingrid Devlin walk into the room instead.

‘I’m sorry for fibbing,’ she whispered as she walked across the room to me as if we were best friends or co-conspirators. ‘I knew they wouldn’t let me in unless I said I was family, but I had to see you.’

She pulled a chair close to my bed and sat down. I didn’t want her here. She had no right at all to be by my bedside, especially not now.

‘Why are you here?’ I asked. ‘I don’t want to see you.’

‘I get that you’re suspicious of me,’ she said. ‘But you’re my best lead on this story. And I need to get as much as I can.’

‘I’m not a “lead”,’ I told her, reaching for the call button by my side. ‘I’m a human being. Not just a story. Constable King’ll be back here shortly, you know.’

‘Have they told you about the car?’ she asked.

‘Ingrid, please. Can you leave?’ My finger hovered over the call button.

‘The car he was driving. The man who Rachel Walker was seeing. I told them, you see.’ She looked down. ‘I’d been following her. Even on the evening she disappeared. I’d seen her earlier, driving to the police station. I’d seen them before, too, having a rendezvous near the bridge.’

‘Ingrid, I don’t know what you think this has to do with me,’ I said, pressing the button.

‘Don’t you realise? I was able to tell the police what car he was driving. I know they suspect your son-in-law. My source told me that. But it’s not him, Elizabeth. It definitely wasn’t him. The man she was seeing was driving a red car. You must be so relieved. If you could just give me a line or two about how police implicated Michael and how wrong they were?’

Her voice trailed off as the ward sister arrived at my door.

‘Please,’ I said. ‘This woman isn’t my niece. She’s a reporter.’

‘Elizabeth, please. Just a line …’

‘Do I have to call security?’ the ward sister asked firmly.

I just turned my head to the side, tried to block it all out. If it wasn’t my son-in-law, Michael, if the man was driving a red car – just like Laura’s – that meant the worst of my fears had come true. Aaron had come back. And he was worse than he’d ever been.

I ignored the cacophony of noise, the arguments back and forth between the ward sister and Ingrid, until I felt a hand on my arm and looked up to see Constable King looking down at me.

‘Elizabeth, we have some news.’

‘It’s about Aaron,’ I said. It wasn’t a question.

She nodded.