‘Is that it?’ I say, about to stand.

‘No, there is one last thing.’

Mullins moves his foot off the wall and stands forward. He pushes his steel-framed glasses up on his nose. I get the feeling Lee is about to reveal the real reason she called here today.

‘You received a text, Faye, around the time Avril went missing. Avril Ryan sent it to you. Can you tell me about that?’ She shifts forward in her chair.

Breathe, Faye. Keep your eye on her and slow down your breathing. Don’t let her see how rattled you are.

‘I receive hundreds of texts, any text in particular?’

Lee looks over at Mullins. He looks back at her, shrugs his shoulders then looks at me. The mood in the room has shifted. I’m now under attack.

Detective Lee is waiting for me to say something. She pulls her chair forward a bit as if getting closer to me is going to make me talk. Maybe she thinks she’s putting me under pressure. She’s wrong. I know pressure. This is not pressure.

‘No, I don’t remember getting any text from Avril Ryan,’ I say.

‘Well, I have the transcript here, the text was sent to your number.’ She recites my phone number. ‘That is your number, isn’t it? And it was your number three years ago because I checked.’

I’m doing my best not to show how panicked I am beneath my confident demeanour. The truth is, I feel like throwing up on the spot. Is it possible Avril Ryan was planning to blackmail me? She’s the one who sent that text. Did Tara get one too? Oh my God, did Tara kill her?

Clenching my hands into fists, trying to stop them from shaking, I watch as Lee opens up the file Mullins hands her. She glances at me, then reads the text message out loud.

‘I need to speak to you urgently, yourself and your friend are in danger, please ring me back at this number as soon as you can and don’t speak to anyone until I see you.’

Lee closes the file marked ‘Avril Ryan’. She hands the file to Mullins and turns her attention back to me.

My mind is somersaulting. Should I say something now? Should I say I never received that message? That the text I received simply said, ‘I can destroy you’.

Once again I drag strength from the air around me. Breathing deeply, I calm my mind and tell myself not to say anything until I speak to Tara.

‘Honestly… I did not see that text.’

‘But you texted her back.’ The detective’s eyes are open wide like two spotlights shining on me.

‘No, I didn’t.’