She smiles, and shrugs. ‘When I heard on Maddie’s video log that you were all having a little anniversary reunion at Drummondale House, I knew what I had to do. If I could convince everyone Elise vanished from the Scottish Highlands, at the hands of the same person who took Lark, Neil would never find out what really happened.’

‘So you set it all up?’

She nods slowly. ‘I knew Ruth would bring towels to the cottage and snoop about – she always did that – such an annoying woman. She totally deserved to die. I hid in Elise’s bedroom with the door locked. I heard Ruth call out, and pretended to be Elise.

‘When Ruth went into my room, the power finally came back on, so I dashed from Elise’s room and turned on the shower, giving the illusion that Elise had gone into the shower, then hurried downstairs to put on the mask.

‘My idea was for Ruth to think she’d witnessed the masked intruder, before being knocked unconscious. When she came round, she was supposed to think Elise had been abducted, and tell everyone what happened.’ She shakes her head. ‘But my timing was out. Not helped by the loss of power. What can I say? I made a mess of things.

‘When I came up the stairs in the mask, Ruth was already in the bathroom. She would have seen Elise wasn’t there.’

‘So you killed her.’ Nausea rises. This woman is a monster.

‘Yes. I killed her. I had no choice. If Ruth had told everyone Elise wasn’t on the estate, the search for her would go wider. Neil would find out what I’d done.’

I’m aware if she stops talking, she will kill me, so continue with more questions, ‘But why Maddie? Why her?’

‘Maddie worked it all out, so I had to kill her too.’ She pushes the knife into my flesh, pierces my skin once more, and I cry out, pain and fear building. ‘She wasn’t on the porch smoking when I went out to confront her that day, but I saw her about to disappear into the wooded area near Vine Hill.

‘I caught up with her. She told me she was meeting Finn, and I knew by the look on her face, she was afraid of me.

‘I told her I’d seen her take the Monopoly token from my cottage, asked her why, and she cried, and tried to hurry away, saying Elise wouldn’t want to be the top hat. That she’d want to be the dog. She’d worked it out, you see.’ She moves her head from side to side, staring into my eyes, a small smile on her face.

Blood trickles down my neck, the second nick in my skin so painful.