‘They were committing a crime – several in fact – and they made you complicit too. Something you seem to have conveniently forgotten.’

‘I was a child, Tina.’ Anna’s face was hot, her skin prickly with an uncomfortable warmth.

‘Yes, I get you were just a child yourself,’ Tina said. ‘I understand your memories were clouded, thwarted and then manipulated by Muriel.’ Tina shot Muriel an icy glance. ‘I’m not a mean person, Anna. Bitter, yes, angry too. From the beginning, when I believed your mother’s lies, it was hard to forgive the fact you didn’t go to the police station immediately. It ate away at me, knowing those lost hours had been vital – Jonie might’ve been found alive if only you’d acted straight away. It’s the reason your mother and I grew apart. My inability to let it go, coupled with my resentment that it was my girl not hers that was taken, meant I had to step back from the friendship. But over the years – and by talking things through with Pat, and then Billy himself – I’ve come to realise I have to be gentle, almost, with you, at least. Allow you to come to the right conclusions slowly, in your own time. Well, with a little help.’

‘Pretty big shove, I’d say,’ Anna said. ‘Torn-off doll’s parts, cryptic clues, blood-filled bags on the doormat.’

‘They weren’t just for you, they were for Muriel too. To let her know.’

‘Know what?’

‘That I had learned the truth. I left the other clues too, so she was sure. Not only the notes but the necklace, the torn, bloody clothing …’

‘What clothing? There wasn’t any.’ Anna frowned.

‘No, I took that when you weren’t looking,’ Lizzie said. She’d been keeping quiet while Muriel, Anna and Tina had been talking.

‘Oh. Why?’

‘I thought it was significant to me. I thought it was all for me, seeing as it was my doll, Polly. And the material looked like a part of my dress, the one I had when I was eight. I thought if you saw it you’d never believe it wasn’t Billy doing it.’

‘Yes, Lizzie, it was yours. Or rather it was like it – just as the doll had been almost identical to the one you used to own,’ Tina said. ‘Your dad told me about how the dress had been found in his truck and seized as evidence. I searched for a close match on the internet, tore a piece from it and stained it with red food colouring. I remember Muriel telling the women at the Mapledon Meeting about it. She’d seen Eliza in it one day, noticed the bloodstains – jumped to her usual wrong conclusion. She’d no idea the blood was Billy’s of course; she assumed it was Eliza’s. And she wouldn’t have known if it had been washed or thrown out in the time between Eliza being taken by social and Jonie being killed. But she’d remembered it and knew it would look bad for Billy – add to the public’s perception he was an evil child killer once the news was out – so she found it and got one of the local boys to pop the lock on Billy’s truck and stuff it inside before Bella gave the police her witness statement. Knowing they would search his truck first.’