‘We weren’t anything special in school. We weren’t trendy enough to be in the popular cliques and we weren’t moody enough to hang out with the cool girls – the goths and the rockers,’ I said.

‘We just did our thing. Hung out together. Nothing to report at all,’ Julie added.

Constable King nodded. ‘Okay. Look, ladies, we’re going to get forensics to look at these flowers. I’ve spoken to DI Bradley and we’ll be putting an extra police presence in your areas. We’d like you to contact us immediately should anything out of the ordinary happen. Even if it seems inconsequential. I’ll give you both a direct line through to the incident room, which’ll guarantee you won’t have to wait to speak to someone. I know this must all seem a bit overwhelming just now, but we remain hopeful that we’ll catch whoever is responsible.’

I can’t say that either Julie or I felt comforted at all by her words.

Paul was on edge by the time I got home. He was standing in the kitchen chopping vegetables to make a stew, but the manner in which he wielded the knife was very much like those poor vegetables had personally offended him. The loud thud of the blade as it hit the wooden chopping board over and over made my head hurt.

‘You’ve had an eventful morning, then,’ he said. It wasn’t a question.

‘Paul, we need to talk,’ I said.

‘Talk away,’ he said, turning his back to me to start throwing some of the vegetables into the pot bubbling on the stove.

‘Paul, this is really serious. I need your attention,’ I said.

He turned and glared at me for a moment. ‘What is it now, Rachel? You know, I thought we were getting somewhere last night. Then you sneak out at first light this morning, gallivant around the place and wander back in here now with a face like thunder on you, demanding I stop what I’m doing because you need to talk to me now. Well, maybe it doesn’t suit me right now.’

He lifted the knife and started chopping a carrot. The repetitive thump of the blade made me jump. I closed my eyes, tried to squeeze away the headache that had been building over the last few hours.

‘This isn’t about whether it suits you or not. This is about our girls. About us.’

He stopped chopping and sighed. ‘One of those big, serious conversations, then. God, Rachel, do we have to start pulling everything apart again?’

He was right that any time we’d been in a room together recently we’d ended up having a serious conversation, which inevitably seemed to turn into a row, but this was different, which was just what I told him.

‘The police will be here shortly to pick up those flowers,’ I said.

He raised an eyebrow.