I picked up the glass of water. Offering me a drink, was that a sign I wasn’t a suspect, just a helpful witness? Or was it some kind of trick, like he would look at which hand I used to lift the water and convict me on the basis of that? Or collect my DNA from the rim? That was illegal, wasn’t it? God. I was on such high alert I didn’t know how to interpret normal human interactions. I had to calm down. I laid my shaking hands on the chipped table, trying to still them. I focused on my surroundings, something I had learned to do during long hours in holding cells. A damp stain in the shape of Africa. Small flecks in the paint as if something had once been screwed to the wall, a cabinet or bracket of some kind. A shred of what looked like balloon on the floor, and I couldn’t imagine how that had got there.

‘So.’ DS Hegarty sat down opposite, taking his time to straighten his tie. I noticed he had no wedding ring, then got annoyed with myself for noticing. ‘This is DS Margaret Hope, by the way. She’s going to sit in on this with me.’ This was the grim-faced woman, who so far hadn’t said a word to me, but was watching me closely. ‘We’ll pop the tape on to record too, so we can keep track of everything.’ There followed some more faffing about with the machine, and the reading of all our names. ‘Now, Rachel. I’m sure you’ve heard that the body found yesterday is that of Anna Devine. I believe you knew Mrs Devine?’

Mrs. Because she was still married to Alex, of course. ‘A little.’ Did they know I was dating her husband? I had to be careful here.

‘And when did you last see her?’

‘Um . . . it was last week. At the Co-op in town.’

I was guessing the police would have been told about this. Half the town had witnessed it, even opening windows to listen in as Anna followed me out and screamed at me, while I stood there clutching my big bag of crisps and bottle of wine, aware of how obvious it must be that I was expecting company that evening. Her husband, in fact. I don’t want you near him! You hear? Stay away from my family!

‘What did you talk about?’

I winced. They must know already. ‘Anna was . . . she didn’t like that I was seeing her ex-husband.’

‘Still married, in fact, weren’t they?’ said DS Hegarty.

So he did know. I watched the female officer taking notes, saying nothing. Her eyes slid to me from time to time, assessing.

‘Technically,’ I said. ‘He’s not living with her any more, but they haven’t filed the paperwork yet. She didn’t want – she was contesting it.’

‘They have a child together, yes?’