‘It is intense and I’m scared too, Michael. About everything. I shouldn’t even be here. My family think I’m out having a run, but I’m here because you make sense when not a lot does at the moment. I could easily just run away from it all and not look back. Ever since my mother died, that’s all I’ve wanted to do. But I can’t and things just keep getting worse. And now Clare …’

‘Don’t run away,’ he said intently, reaching across and cradling the side of my face in his hand, tilting my head so that he was looking directly into my eyes. ‘Don’t ever do that. Not without me.’

It was magnetic, the pull he had on me, and I let him kiss me and take my mind away from all of my worries and all the horror in my life. He was what I needed to get through this.

‘Can’t you stay with me tonight?’ he asked, his voice strained with desire as his lips brushed against my neck. ‘I guess I know the answer, but I have to ask.’

I threaded my hands through his. ‘I wish I could … but things are even worse now than they were before. Michael, the police suspect, or are at least looking into the possibility that someone’s trying to spook me, and Julie, too.’

‘What? Why?’ He shifted in his seat. Looked alarmed, held my hand a little tighter.

I explained to him about the flowers, about the notes and the rhymes – the possible link to our friendship.

‘And they think the killer might be behind all that?’

‘I suppose. I don’t know. I mean, they haven’t ruled it out and they’ve put on extra patrols.’

‘So they’re taking it seriously by the sounds of it,’ he said. ‘Rachel, you know, we could do it. Run away. Get away from all this. You don’t have to stay.’

How I wished it were that simple.

‘If only,’ I told him. ‘Where would we run, Michael? I have daughters, a job. A mortgage. You’ve a house, a job. We can’t just walk away from everything, not really. It’s nice in theory, but …’

‘Bring the girls. We can all make a new start.’

I shook my head. How simple he made it all sound. The girls had school. Beth was getting ready to sit her GCSEs.

He ran his fingers through his hair and then slammed them on the steering wheel. ‘This is bullshit!’ he said and I shrank back from him. He shook his head. ‘I can’t protect you. I can’t be with you. You might be in danger – real danger, Rachel, and there’s nothing I can do about it.’