‘It’s not exactly normal circumstances.’ I instantly regret my snippy tone. I doubt Maddie will ever be a friend – but I know right now we must pull together, and she’s trying her best to help. ‘I’m sure the police will understand,’ I say softening.

There’s a knock on the door, and Maddie jumps to her feet, dashes to open it.

Rosamund stumbles into the cottage, pale and shocked. ‘I’ve lost Finn,’ she cries, teeth chattering. ‘He didn’t wait for me. Said he was going to get his quad bike, but I couldn’t keep up with him. And then I thought I heard a scream. Thought it was Elise, and took off in the other direction, but the cold got too much.’

‘And the scream?’

She shakes her head. ‘I don’t know.’

Maddie is leading her by the elbow towards the wood burner, and once there, Rosamund crouches down in front of it and rubs her hands together.

‘Where is she? Where’s Elise?’ she says, tears in her eyes. She’s visibly shaken. ‘Where the hell is she?’

Maddie finds a blanket and wraps it around Rosamund’s shoulders, before disappearing into the kitchen.

Over the next few moments, Thomas breaks the horrific news about Ruth.

‘Murdered?’ Rosamund’s eyes are wide in her pale face, her voice soft and quivering. She rises and perches on the edge of the sofa.

‘We think so,’ I say. It’s lame. Of course someone killed her.

Maddie appears from the kitchen, and hands Rosamund a steaming mug of tea.

‘But it makes no sense.’ Rosamund blows on the liquid, takes a sip, and swallows. ‘Why would anyone want to kill Ruth?’

We do a collective shrug, and I feel my heart picking up speed once more.

After the awful shock of seeing Ruth’s body, and all the things that have happened over the last year, I would have expected to be a little desensitised by now, but if anything I’m worse.

‘She’s the most harmless woman I’ve ever met,’ Maddie says. ‘Such a sweet, gentle person.’

‘Was she?’ I say. ‘I mean I’m not saying she wasn’t, of course, but, how well did any of us know her?’ I’m aware I’m speaking ill of the dead – that it’s meant to be unlucky, and is far from kind – but I can’t help thinking how overprotective and controlling she was of Finn. Nobody is without secrets.

‘I’m sure you don’t want to talk about Lark going missing, guys,’ Rosamund says, ‘but I can’t help but compare.’