‘Am I in trouble? I mean, I only wanted to protect myself, to try and start over, you know?’ I ignore the irony here – that in starting over I have inadvertently found myself in much the same position as I was in before. Caring for a child, something bad happening to said child, and me in the firing line, all lined up and ready to be accused of something I didn’t do.

DC Bishop skips over my question, asking one of her own instead. ‘So, Anna – I’m going to keep calling you Anna, no point in adding to the confusion – let’s go back to Laurel’s disappearance.’

I feel a rush of what can only be relief, as I realise that, for now, we are done talking about what happened in Killin on that awful, terrible night.

‘So, Dominic didn’t turn up that night?’

‘No,’ I say firmly, ‘he was supposed to meet us, but he never showed.’

‘And did he explain to you where he was? Give you a reason as to why he didn’t meet his daughter as planned?’

‘No,’ I say, cautiously. I am aware that whatever I say now could change the whole course of the investigation, but I owe it to Laurel to tell DC Bishop the truth – it doesn’t matter anymore if I don’t have anything to back it up, they’ll be questioning him now anyway. ‘He wasn’t at the hospital, even though he told Fran that’s where he was. He asked me not to say anything to Fran, and I . . . assumed that he was meeting someone. But then I spoke to his ex-girlfriend, Pamela, and she was waiting to meet him that night too. He never showed up for her either.’

‘So, where do you think he was?’

‘I have no idea.’ Driving Laurel away in the back of his car.

‘And do you think that Pamela knows where he was?’

I think for a moment. If she had asked before I knew who Pamela was, I would have known how to answer, but now I’m not so sure. ‘I don’t know. She says not, but Fran has been receiving abusive messages on the “FIND LAUREL” Facebook page, about how she doesn’t deserve to have children. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pamela had something to do with that.’

‘And what about Dominic’s car? Does everyone use the car, or just him?’