Nick looked as if he were considering knocking the officer’s hand aside and taking me home regardless. ‘Good God, she’s concussed!’ he said. ‘If you just leave her be, she’ll get better, she’ll remember more. Talk to her tomorrow.’ He rubbed his hand over his eyes. ‘And I have to leave. I have to tell my daughter.’ My God, I hadn’t even thought of Hazel, his daughter with Lorelei. Telling her would be a burden far greater than looking after me.

‘I understand, sir, but we’ll see what she remembers now. We won’t keep her too long.’ His manner was kind. I looked up at Nick and nodded. ‘I’ll make sure she’s all right, sir.’

Nick seemed to relent. But there was something else in his manner, and he hesitated. ‘Officer,’ he said. He took the policeman to one side and said something very quietly.

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ muttered the other man. ‘When was it?’

‘A few weeks ago.’

I knew what Nick had told him. It was something that should have been just for us. The pain of that night, of what had happened at the party where Lorelei had shone so, had not gone away – would never go away – and now he was telling this policeman. It’s agonizing to have a stranger know your grief. They looked at me for what seemed a long time. ‘Come this way, please,’ the officer said to me gently.

‘All right,’ I said.

He led us into the master bedroom. The walls were covered with theatre playbills and film posters but it didn’t register that they were Lorelei’s productions until I saw her name in big letters at the bottom of one of them. ‘And just what were you doing here, Mrs Cawson?’ he asked. I didn’t know what to say. The shame I felt, the stupidity – they held the words in my throat. ‘Mrs Cawson. What were you doing in Miss Addington’s house?’

‘Tell him,’ said Nick. ‘Whatever it is, you have done nothing wrong.’

I gulped down air. ‘I thought …’ The humiliation set fire to my cheeks and held my tongue so that no matter how I tried I couldn’t make another sound.

‘Sergeant –’ began Nick.

‘I thought Nick was here,’ I blurted out. ‘I thought he was here. With her. With Lorelei.’

The policeman looked at Nick with his eyebrows raised. I could see his mind working. Mapping out a chain of events. Nick’s mouth fell open a little and he clamped it shut again. I could see his forehead furrow in anger.

‘And why did you think that?’

‘I don’t know!’ I cried out. ‘I don’t know,’ I repeated to Nick. ‘I’m sorry.’

How I wished I could somehow take back what I had done. If only we could do that in life, as children do when they play games, to save themselves.