I knew so little about Anna. She’d had a pink coat, she’d married Alex, given birth to Sam. She’d worked as a massage therapist – might some client have gotten too close? Asking Alex about her life was obviously impossible – I hadn’t heard from him in two days – and if her killer was someone she’d met after she and Alex split, then he probably wouldn’t know anyway. The police had let me go late the night before, again without charge, and I’d returned home to my empty cottage. It was so late there were no reporters left, though I could see people had been in my front garden, trampling the grass. A few envelopes and calling cards had been pushed through my letter box, offers for me to tell my story. Early that morning Audrey had marched up my path, an expression like thunder on her face, and rapped on my door.

‘Rachel!’ she shouted in. ‘What’s going on? There were dozens of reporters here yesterday, they ruined my lawn borders!’

I ignored her until she went away, but already I was worried they’d come back, so I had slipped out while it was still dark, hoping to avoid them. I’d not had time to put the cottage back to rights after the search, and Brandy was still with Marilyn. I told myself she was better off there. I had things to do. If I was going to work out what was going on, before I got arrested again and probably charged this time, I had to find out more about Anna, discover who might have killed her. So really there was only one thing I could do – break into her house.

Not actually break in, of course. Did it count if you let yourself in with a key? Even if it didn’t, it was at best highly suspicious, and for all I knew the police were tailing me all the time. But how else to find out if I was crazy, or if someone really had killed Anna to get to me? I had never been to the house before, of course, but I knew where it was, and Alex had once mentioned Anna left a key near the door, as I did. People were more trusting in Coldwater – or they had been, before this brutal murder.

I walked all the way up there, going the long way instead of cutting through the woods – I still couldn’t bear to take that path. It had stopped raining, but I pulled my hood over my head just in case someone saw me. I passed a few people on my walk, no one I recognised. A beady-eyed old man with a walking stick said hello, but I just grunted and kept my gaze down. Stupid. That was probably more suspicious than smiling and answering.