‘Maybe you could get booked into a B & B in Berwick tonight,’ I say as Rosamund returns.

She nods, sits too, picks up her mug. ‘Good idea.’

I pull out my phone, about to look up a suitable place for her to stay, when it hits me.

I stare into her eyes. ‘I never told you about the mask in the antique shop,’ I say.

Fear floods in. I get to my feet. ‘You should leave. Now.’

Something shifts in her eyes. She’s on her feet too. Within moments she’s grabbed a knife from the rack.

‘Christ!’ I cry. ‘What the fuck?’

‘I tried to veer you away from finding out the truth.’ She leaps towards me, pins me against the wall, points the blade at my throat. ‘Tried to lay the blame at Finn’s door. I thought the mask in the antique shop was a nice touch.’

‘Rosamund, please,’ I say, trying to fight back tears.

‘I hoped you’d recall Finn was in the area, put two and two together and make some absurd number. I never dreamed you’d think Elise was after me.’ She laughs. ‘God I wish I’d thought of that.’ She grabs me, slams me against the wall with the same force as the masked figure in the wood. It was her. It was her that awful night.

She looks down at me crumpled in fear and pain, and tilts her head. With a jolt she crouches down, and presses the tip of the knife against my throat. I whimper, pathetic.

She lifts her manicured finger against her lips, and I yelp as the knife nicks my skin. Her face is so close to mine, I can smell stale coffee on her breath. ‘It wasn’t meant to turn out like this,’ she says. ‘But one domino fell, then another, then another.’

‘Did you kill them?’ My words catch on my breath. ‘Maddie? Ruth?’

‘Yes. Yes I did.’ She’s so calm, proud of herself.

‘Please let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone.’

Blood pumps in my ears, as she shakes her head. ‘No can do, I’m afraid. And you might as well know, because I’m going to kill you anyway, that Elise is dead. I killed her too.’ She sounds triumphant.

‘Oh God, no. Why? Why would you do that? She was just a child.’

She screws up her nose. ‘In my defence, it was an accident. She’s buried in a field not far from here, where nobody will ever look for her. Not when they think she was abducted or killed at Drummondale House. And if DI Kate Beynon makes as much of a hash of Elise’s death as she did Lark’s disappearance, she’ll never work it out.’ A beat. ‘You look puzzled, Amelia. Do I have to spell it out for you?’