‘I saw you were coming here.’ He was looking about the room, restless. I noticed he was wearing all black, jeans and a jumper. So he wouldn’t be spotted?

‘You followed me?’

‘If you want to put it that way.’

‘Why?’

He sighed. In the low light of the office, I could see how tired he looked, as if he hadn’t slept since Anna died. ‘I’ve known for a few weeks who you were, you know. After Anna told me, I did a bit of investigating of my own, watched some of the old footage from the trial. And I knew you were her. You have the same mannerisms. The way you push your hair out of your face.’

To my horror, he touched a lock of my hair and smoothed it back. I leaned away, my back against the wall. There had been a time when I longed for him to touch me. Now every sense was screaming no!

Why was he here? Why had he followed me? My prison instincts had kicked in already. I was scanning the room for something to use as a weapon. A metal dog chain on Marilyn’s desk, but it was thin and wouldn’t be much use against a strong man like Alex. Over to the side was a fire extinguisher. Maybe. My body was tense, waiting to see what he would do. But this was Alex. I loved him, didn’t I? Why was I so afraid?

‘You did believe her, then. So that’s what Anna meant. At the Co-op. About not wanting me around “him” – she meant Sam, not you.’

‘She didn’t want Racy Casey anywhere near her son, and who can blame her? That little girl you suffocated, she was Sam’s age.’

I felt overwhelmed by it, all the years of hostility. Would no one ever believe me, so long after I’d been declared innocent and walked free?

‘I didn’t kill Madison,’ I snapped. ‘I cared for her.’

‘So who did it then, Casey? I’ll have to start calling you that, I guess. Who killed the Safrans if it wasn’t you?’ Alex moved in even closer. I couldn’t see a way to get past him.

‘I don’t know! I’ve never known.’

‘Come on, you can tell me. We get each other, don’t we? Sometimes we do things that we don’t mean to, but people don’t understand. That doesn’t mean we deserve to rot away in jail.’

I stared at him. ‘Stacey Donner?’

He smiled – a smile that used to make me melt. Now I was terrified.