I lug the suitcase down the stairs, bouncing it off every step, and place it by the front door, before heading towards the kitchen. I don’t know what I’m looking for – but I know there must be something here, something that will tell me whether my new instinct is right about Fran. Rifling through the kitchen drawers I find nothing, so I turn my attention to the cupboards, pulling out half empty boxes of cereal, shoving my hands inside to make sure nothing is hidden there. I find nothing – apart from a heap of takeaway leaflets shoved in the bottom drawer.

The kitchen bin sports a brand-new bin bag, and I know the outside bins will have been taken away weeks ago. Disheartened, but not ready to give up yet, I head down the hallway to Dominic’s office, hoping against all hope that the door won’t be locked. It’s not – the handle turns easily in my hand – and I enter, the air thick with dust, as though the room hasn’t been used for years. As I lay my hand on the door handle I have a flashback to a few nights after Laurel disappeared, Fran’s voice coming from the other side of the door. Why was she using Dominic’s office? At the time I thought perhaps she merely wanted a bit of privacy, to talk to (someone) her mother in peace without me or Kelly overhearing. Now, I can’t help but wonder if she was up to something a little more sinister.

I think back to when DS Wright and Kelly told us that Dominic has been arrested, that images of children had been discovered on his computer. I remember the way my stomach lurched, and my hands started to shake as the shock of adrenaline pulsed around my body, making my lips feel numb and the floor unsteady beneath my feet. Fran had seemed so calm, and I reasoned that that was her shock reaction – everyone reacts in different ways after all – but what if she seemed so calm because she wasn’t actually that shocked? Because, maybe, she already knew what they would find on Dominic’s computer. That maybe she was the one who had put them there. If your husband was accused of something so completely hideous, so wrong, would you simply accept it? Or would you defend him? The more I think about it, the more I feel uneasy about her reaction.