‘No, Kelly. I want to hear this.’ Fran’s voice is like steel. ‘I want to hear what she has to say.’ Kelly steps back, and Ruth continues.

‘You say you don’t even know me, but I know you. You ignored me all the way through drama school, you made sure I was always on the outside looking in while you were there, swanning around with all your precious actor friends. I thought when you moved back here, when you had a child, that it would be different, that we could be friends, finally.’

‘Look, I’m sorry, Ruth,’ Fran says, ‘I didn’t recognise you, drama school was a long time ago, a lot has happened since then . . .’

‘All I ever wanted was to be a friend to you, do you know that?’ Ruth’s voice breaks a little, and I can’t help but feel some small sense of pity for her. ‘When Laurel went missing, I thought I could get involved, I could help look for her. I could be your friend, Fran.’

Fran opens her mouth to speak, but Ruth carries on, ‘I offered to help you so many times and every time you just threw it back in my face – I wanted to get involved, Fran, I wanted to be part of it all, to be part of your circle, not like your so-called mummy friends who’ve steered well clear, in case they catch abduction from you.’

Fran lets out a gasp, as though Ruth has slapped her in the face. ‘Ruth, that’s not . . .’

‘No, Fran, let me finish. That’s why I sent the messages, that’s why I painted that word on the fence . . .’ Ruth scrubs her rough, paint-stained hands over her face. ‘I thought it would make you need me. I thought that if you thought everyone was against you, you’d need me, you’d let me in.’

‘Jesus.’ Fran shakes her head, and I see that familiar set to her jaw that says she is utterly furious. ‘You did all of this . . . you made my life even more of a living hell than it already was, because you wanted to be a part of it all? You actually thought this would make me be your friend? When my daughter . . . when Laurel . . .’ Her voice thickens, and she has to stop.