I frown. ‘Just him, I guess. They might go out in it as a family, but that’s very rare. Fran uses a car service when she can, and usually I use my car or walk with Laurel. There is one other thing . . . I maybe should have mentioned it earlier, but I didn’t know . . .’ I stop, not sure how to explain why I didn’t tell Kelly or DS Wright about it in the first place. I reach into the pocket of my jeans and pull out the tissue-wrapped hair. ‘I found this hair on Dominic’s jacket right after Laurel went missing. It might be nothing, but . . .’

DC Bishop scribbles another unintelligible scrawl in her notebook, and carefully drops the tissue and hair into a clear plastic evidence bag. ‘Leave this with me. Thanks, Anna, you’ve been very helpful. Interview terminated at 14.26.’ She leans over, shirt straining at the seams again, and switches off the tape recorder, before showing me towards the door, telling me it’s OK for me to go home, but not to discuss anything we’ve talked about with Fran or Dominic.

I walk home, my whole body aching with exhaustion as my mind runs over the questions that DC Bishop fired at me. It was exhausting reliving what happened to Archie in Scotland, but I am somewhat relieved that I finally got it off my chest – I finally told the truth. Now all that remains to be seen is whether I have spent the last three years sharing a house with a man who could abduct his own daughter.

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 21

As I walk back towards the Jessops’ house (I am losing the ability to refer to it as home, it no longer feels like home, not without Laurel there), I try not to notice the icy, cold air, the frost glittering on the pavement, more Christmas lights twinkling in the front windows of the houses I pass; a stark reminder that in a few weeks Christmas will be upon us and there is every chance that we will be waking up on Christmas morning without Laurel. Although I initially felt relieved to talk about what happened with Archie, to get the burden of the lie off my chest, now all I can think about is Laurel, where she is, if she is safe, if she is warm enough, and the burden returns, heavier than ever.