“Watch, Meggie,” I whisper in her ear as I stand behind her, the glow from the screen lighting the room with a greenish tint from the night-vision cameras I am streaming. There are two policemen standing on Tom’s doorstep, just waiting to have a conversation with the tall red-haired man. All thanks to a very polite, but a little nervous, dog walker who gave a tip-off about him a few hours ago.

With my hands on Megan’s shoulders I can feel the twitch of her muscles, the tension building in her as the policemen wait for Tom to open the door.

“I wonder what he’s doing in there?” I say as I lean forward and, in a few clicks, fill the other screen with an image of Tom’s living room, the spyware in his huge TV activating without any sign. “Let’s have some sound, shall we?” I press a few keys and his plummy voice comes blaring out of my speakers.

“We need to ask you a few questions, sir,” one of the officers tells him.

“Is this about Leah?” Tom’s voice is frantic, his hand swishing through that stupid hair.

“Yes, sir.” The officer is brusque, his tone perfunctory.

“Have you found her?”

“No. But we have reason to believe that you and Ms. Patterson had an altercation recently. Something that you failed to tell the officer you spoke to.”

“Altercation?”

“A witness has come forward.” I note that he doesn’t mention it was just an anonymous tip-off and that they have no idea who I really am.

“Witness?” Tom looks around himself in confusion.

“Yes.”

“When did they say they saw this?”

“Last Thursday.”

“I was working last Thursday. Here all day, on and off conference calls.” Actually, Tom had a three-hour break in the afternoon when he had cooked himself pasta and read a book on his patio, plenty of time that he won’t be able to prove he wasn’t out threatening his girlfriend. I could prove it, with my collection of recordings. Not that I will.

“Can you prove that, sir?”

Tom crosses the room and opens his laptop. I click a couple of buttons to shift the view from his smart TV to the laptop camera, his face now filling my screen as he peers at his.

“He should moisturize more,” I say to Megan. “Those wrinkles will only get worse.” Another click and I mirror his laptop screen on to mine.

Tom pulls up his calendar from last Thursday and shows the officers the list of meetings. He also pulls up the history of his company online chat to prove he was working most of the day.

“What about the afternoon?” the officer asks him.

“Lunch, bit of reading. You know, nothing special.”

“Can anyone vouch for where you were?”

“I didn’t see anyone. We’re in lockdown.”

“Sure.”

The other officer leans in to peer at Tom’s screen, his face now filling the entire frame. “What is this?” He is pointing at something. I know it will be at the folder marked “Camera Feed.” “If you’ve got CCTV on this place, we’ll just watch the footage to clear everything up.”