I listened as my friend retched and vomited on the other end of the phone. The taste of bile was in my own mouth. Instinctively, I put my hand to my throat. I didn’t even have to try to imagine the horror – an image was there in my head. Clare gasping for breath. A knife. Jesus Christ! This man was an animal.

‘I’ll be with you in ten minutes,’ I stuttered, hanging up. ‘I have to go,’ I told Michael. ‘Some newspaper has printed horrific details of what happened to Clare. I’ve no idea if it’s true. Jesus! I hope it’s not true. Julie’s beside herself.’

‘I understand,’ Michael said, standing up. ‘You have to go. This has to come first for now. Look, maybe we should just take a break. I don’t mean stop altogether, but just put it all on pause until this settles. I need you, but others need you more.’

I blinked at him, trying to comprehend what was happening. Was he calling a halt to whatever this was because I was going to help my hysterical friend? Because I was choosing her need over his? He looked away from me and I asked myself had he just been lying to me all along – broken phones and battered laptops, and never feeling like this about anyone else, but let’s just hit the pause button? I didn’t need this game-playing. Or whatever it was.

I didn’t trust myself to respond, so I simply grabbed my keys and walked out of the back door, leaving it swinging behind me.

If he called after me, I didn’t hear him. All I could hear was my blood rushing through my body and the echoes of Julie’s hysteria as she relayed to me what she’d read.

Chapter Eighteen

Elizabeth

It was Constable King and a male colleague who arrived at my door and not DI Bradley as I’d hoped.

‘Mrs O’Loughlin,’ she said, taking off her hat to reveal a short pixie haircut before reaching out to shake my hand. ‘I hear you’ve had a bit of trouble. This is my colleague, Constable Mark Black. Can we come in?’

I nodded and led them through to the kitchen, where the funereal bow and flowers were sitting on the kitchen table, mocking me. The card that stated that my deceased daughter sent her love was beside them.

Both officers looked at the items before Constable Black produced an evidence bag in which to take them away.

‘This must be very distressing for you,’ Constable King said. ‘And you noticed this first thing this morning?’

‘When I was taking the dog for a walk, yes,’ I said. ‘It was tied to the gate down at the road’s edge.’

‘And you hadn’t been aware of anyone around the house at all during the night? Had you had any visitors at all?’