Sean steps in front of me like a bodyguard protecting his celebrity client. I feel safe but I also feel like I’ve just blown this thing into a whole other dimension. What if they were about to finish with me? Ask one or two more things and then disappear forever.

In the background, Muriel is straining her neck to see what’s going on and mouthing at me with concern. I hope she doesn’t come outside and join us, so I nod and fake a smile letting her know I’m okay.

‘We need to talk to your client as soon as possible,’ the detective says to Sean. He turns to me, checks his phone and we discuss a suitable time. Four o’clock tomorrow evening at the station.

The detectives turn away from us and get into their car. I breathe with relief as Sean once again tells me not to worry. But that ship has sailed. I’m worried sick. My body feels like it has been thrown against a wall. The last time I was in a police station, I was getting visa forms signed for my journey to Australia. I was never there as a… what am I now? A person of interest? A suspect?

With my world spinning on an axis of fear, I open the door of the café and walk inside. The person last served is walking out with their takeaway coffee, leaving myself and Muriel to fill the anxious space.

‘Are you alright, love? What happened? Was that the police you were talking to?’

She moves out from behind the counter. I really don’t want to discuss anything now but I can’t ignore her either.

‘Yeah, it’s nothing; they wanted to ask me about an incident that happened in a house I lived in a few years back. Did the delivery from Musgrave’s arrive?’ I say, hoping she takes the bait and moves off the subject.

‘Yes, it’s out back. It’s not that house Avril Ryan was found in, is it?’

Shit, she’s not letting up.

‘Yes, I lived there for a while a few years back. The police are asking anyone who ever lived there if they know anything. But I don’t have anything to tell them. I never knew her.’

‘According to her brother she was a lovely girl, loved her animals. She worked as a health care worker in an old folks’ home or something like that,’ she says.

I’m listening to Muriel, aghast. Does she know Avril Ryan’s brother?

‘They are beyond consoling, God love them all,’ Muriel continues, moving towards the sink with a coffee tray. I’m stunned into silence. ‘They never gave up hope until they found her body. Terrible… terrible affair.’

Wrapping the belt on my apron tightly around my waist, I pull and knot and take a deep breath. ‘Did you know the family?’