I hold it between finger and thumb as I sit down on the edge of Laurel’s bed, swallowing hard to keep from being sick. The sock is slightly grubby at the toe, a thick smear of dark grey dust marring the seam. Almost as though it’s been hidden somewhere else for a while, out of sight, out of mind. Like, stuffed under a church pew somewhere?

The thought comes unbidden to mind, and I see Fran perched on the end of the church pew, Kelly’s voice saying she went there a lot for some peace. I run my fingers gently over the fabric, finally piecing together what it was that I couldn’t put my finger on.

I think back to that day, the day when DS Wright told us Dominic had been arrested. That they had found a tiny yellow sock in his car, hidden away. Fran saying that she had put the socks on Laurel that Saturday night . . . only, she didn’t. I was the one who got Laurel ready that evening – Fran was busy on the phone, and Laurel didn’t want to wait, she wanted to get to the field early, so she didn’t miss the start of the bonfire. I was the one who shoved Laurel’s feet into her boots, I was the one who bundled her up into her coat. There was no argument between Fran and Laurel over wearing sandals, not that I heard, and Fran was banking on me being so shocked by Dominic’s arrest that I couldn’t piece it together.

I bring the sock to my nose, hoping to inhale some of Laurel’s scent, but it doesn’t even smell of laundry soap anymore, it’s musty and stale. I think of Fran, coming back into the kitchen from the garage with a bottle of wine in her hand, a guilty look across her face. Was that when she did it? Was that when she planted Laurel’s sock in Dominic’s car in an attempt to prove him guilty of hurting Laurel?

A cold shiver runs down my spine as I realise exactly how calculating and clever Fran has been. A grieving, desperate mother on the surface, able to convince everyone, including the police that Dominic was guilty of the most heinous crime. But what has she done with Laurel? And how did she manage to pull this off, in a field full of people, when she only left me alone for a matter of minutes? More to the point, how can I make this right again?