‘You’re absolutely right,’ I said and she moved to take a step inwards. I put my arm out to stop her. ‘You’re absolutely right. I don’t have to tell you, or anyone else, anything I don’t want to. As for it being a nasty murder, I don’t think you’ll find any murders anywhere that aren’t nasty. That kind of goes with the territory of murder, don’t you think?’

‘But … but …’ she stammered. ‘That’s not what I meant. I just meant that we all have to work together to try to get this monster caught as soon as possible. It seems to me that he’s very dangerous. I just wondered if you would help us with that. You know, tell us what you saw. Anything she might have said …’

‘I think you’ve got the wrong person for that,’ I told her.

It wasn’t too much of a lie. I wasn’t the right person to talk to a journalist. I certainly wasn’t the right person to divulge any information about the case. The police had asked me specifically not to and that was before the nastiness of the funeral bow on my gate that morning. I had no desire to draw any more attention to myself.

‘And we don’t know for definite it was a man. Even the police won’t say that,’ I added.

Ingrid tilted her head to one side. ‘Ah! now come on. I think we all know it was a man. This mystery boyfriend. Did she mention him at all to you? Give a name? Blame anyone?’

There was something about this woman that made me feel deeply uneasy. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was a falseness to her that gave me the creeps. I shivered, even though it was still so very warm. I wanted her as far away from me as possible, so that she couldn’t wheedle any information out of me that I didn’t want to give.

I tried to push the door closed.

‘Thanks, Ms Devlin, for your interest, but I really don’t think we have anything more to say to each other.’

To my shock, she put her foot out to stop the door from closing.

‘Please, Mrs O’Loughlin. I’d ask you to reconsider. This is very much in the public interest. If we could just chat for a bit. I can explain what I need from you – what could help us to get the story out there. We want to make sure no other family has to go through what the Taylors are going through. No other person has to see what you saw.’

‘I’ve told you already that I’m not the person you need to talk to. Now, please can you remove yourself from my property or I’ll call my sources at the police station and have them remove you.’