‘I don’t . . .’ I stutter for a moment, ‘I don’t think he knows what else to do.’

‘I’m sure he’s having an affair. The way he storms out at any little chance. Have you seen or heard anything, Anna?’

I think about the phone call I answered, the breathy, flirty voice at the other end of it, but it’s not enough, it’s not proof. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘There was a woman before me, you know?’ Fran gives me a conspiratorial look, as if sharing a secret. ‘I honestly think that she and Dominic would have got back together if it hadn’t been for me.’

‘Really?’ I’m not sure what to think. The Jessops have a volatile relationship – Fran is high maintenance and they argue about ridiculous things sometimes – but it always seemed, before, anyway, that the volatility was what kept them coming back for more.

‘Oh, yes. I got pregnant within a few weeks of Dominic and I meeting each other. Of course, he wanted to do the right thing, so we got married. But I sometimes think that he and Pamela would have got back together and lived happily ever after if I hadn’t had Laurel.’ Fran pauses for a moment. ‘I think maybe he was with Pamela that night . . . or maybe he was somewhere else. The night Laurel went missing.’

I freeze for a moment, ice trickling through my veins, before I try and hide it by reaching down to scratch at my ankle, hiding my face from Fran. ‘Why would you think that?’ I say, eventually, when I can’t keep up the fake scratch any longer without looking weird.

‘He said he was at the hospital. That’s what he told me and the police anyway. But I overheard you, Anna, on the phone.’ Fran’s eyes meet mine and my breath sticks in my throat. ‘You rang the hospital that night, didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ I say, quietly. She knows – there’s no point in lying to her about it.

‘And they told you he wasn’t there?’ I nod, and she closes her eyes for a moment. ‘I suppose he told you not to say anything, didn’t he? Don’t look so sheepish, Anna, I’m not cross with you. Dominic is your boss as well – he put you in an awkward situation.’

‘He did ask me not to say anything to you, not until he had a chance to speak to you himself. And he told me that he’d already spoken to the police and told them his whereabouts.’