‘Do you remember the case?’ I asked, earning another set of raised eyebrows from DS Margaret Hope. My heart had sunk when I realised she was in this interview too. Disapproval radiated off her. Likely she was one of the people who thought I was a child-killer.

‘A little. The parents and the little girl were killed?’

‘Yes. I called the police, but they arrested me. Sent me to Death Row.’

He nodded. ‘But you were cleared on appeal?’

‘Well, yes, because I was innocent. The evidence was all circumstantial. I came back to the house and they were – like that. I thought the killer was still in the house, so I hid in the cupboard with the baby. Carson.’ It was strange to say his name out loud after all this time.

‘And you and the baby were unharmed?’

‘Yes, we were both fine. I was in prison in California for five years, then I got out and came home.’

He was nodding slowly. ‘I think I remember. They gave you a new name?’

‘No, I just got married, started using my middle name. I’m not married now, obviously.’ Stupid. He didn’t care if I was married or not.

He was still staring at me. It’s an odd thing, to have served time in prison, but then been cleared of all charges. It clings to you, the taint of it. An exoneree is the technical name for what I am. ‘You didn’t think to tell us this, Rachel – should we call you Casey now?’

‘No, no, please keep calling me Rachel. It’s taken me years to train myself to it.’ Luckily, Casey was not a common name – Jenna had been banking on that when she gave it to me. So I rarely heard it in public and turned around, before I remembered who I was now. ‘And of course I didn’t tell you – can you blame me?’

DS Hope sniffed. ‘It’s very unusual, isn’t it,’ she said, speaking for the first time, ‘to be involved in not one but two murder investigations?’ She had a Manchester accent.

Here we go, I thought – just what I was afraid they would say, jumping to conclusions. But I had an answer for it.