‘Wait, Tina knew it was me all along? Why didn’t she say anything earlier?’ Anna said.

‘Yes, she suspected even before I put my theory to her. Right from the off Tina had been angry with you and your mother for not going straight to the police when you’d supposedly witnessed Jonie getting into my truck. She didn’t buy the shock story either. We talked at length, both during her visits to the prison and in letters, about how she felt, what she wanted to do.’

‘So she devised this bizarre Knock, Knock game to let us know she knew, but that was it? That’s enough, is it? Seems unlikely,’ Muriel said.

‘It might do to you. The important things to Tina were finding her daughter’s body and ensuring those involved told, or were forced to tell, the truth. It’s her who has decided to spare Anna. And Eric and Muriel too. She’s the forgiving one; far more than me. I’ve got the opportunity to resume my life. I can, perhaps …’ He looked to Lizzie. ‘Well, I can maybe finally have some kind of relationship with my daughter, look after her. Tina doesn’t have that. All I wanted was for her to be able to bury her child. And now Eric will come good, won’t you, Eric?’ He turned his attention back to her dad.

‘Yes. I’m so sorry, Anna. You were never meant to find out – not like this.’

‘But she already knew,’ Lizzie said. ‘Anna knew she was the one who killed Jonie. What do you mean, she was never meant to find out?’

‘The shock of what happened somehow caused her to bury the memory of it,’ Muriel said.

Anna lowered her head, hearing a subtle, dismissive huff from Billy’s direction.

‘How do you know that?’ Lizzie said.

‘Because she genuinely never appeared flustered when Jonie’s death was spoken of. After she’d given her statement, it was as if she began to believe Billy was the one who’d done it, not her. I even began to believe it myself. I suppose the explanation I gave, the one reported, was easier for her. Better than thinking she took her friend’s life.’

‘Did you remember, Anna? I mean, wasn’t there any recollection of the events that day?’ Lizzie asked.

‘Yes. Yes, there was. But Mum’s right. I only really remembered what I’d been told happened. Those were the memories I carried forward. Once I became Anna, too, I think that helped. I was no longer Bella. Bella wasn’t a part of me. I didn’t want, or need her memories.’

‘What about now? Now you know it was you, hasn’t it dislodged any memory of it?’

Anna’s mind conjured Jonie’s face – the massive lump jutting from her forehead. She recalled her anger, the force behind her kick. The sound of Jonie’s skull hitting the ground and seeing the blood leak from her ear.

‘Not really, no,’ she said. The lie came easily. She’d spent a lifetime constructing the narrative – she wasn’t ready to let it go yet. She’d have to come to terms with this in her own time. She didn’t owe Lizzie anything.