It didn’t matter if I was still under investigation for murder, or that you’d left, probably for good, or that she’d lied a while back, or that I felt like I might never be able to sleep again without dreaming of a smiling man following me. The moment she said, ‘Lou, honey, I’m just the gladdest to speak to you,’ I felt like I was back in my own skin.

‘You too,’ I told her. ‘Everything’s been such a fuck-up.’

‘I hear you, honey,’ she said. ‘I’ve just spoken to that insanely handsome cop. Who is completely, one hundred per cent immune to any kind of flirtation and it’s heartbreaking.’

I couldn’t help smiling. ‘The older one or the younger one?’

‘Well, he’s a sergeant, I think he said,’ she tried. ‘Probably thirty-something and with cheekbones like knives and the most incredible blue eyes.’ She sighed. ‘But nothing there, you know? Not a hint of sexuality.’

‘I know the one.’

And God, the relief of talking about the police like that. Of not thinking of them as terrifying figures of authority.

‘So,’ April said, ‘are you OK? I’ve been going crazy with worry.’

‘I know,’ I told her. There had been fourteen missed calls and eight messages from her on my phone by the time I got it back. Which was a lot, even for April. ‘I wanted so badly to talk to you. I’m back home now. Feeling like shit but on the up.’

‘Where’s Niall?’

I flinched slightly. ‘I – I asked him to go.’

‘You did?’

April sounded genuinely surprised, and I rushed to defend my actions. ‘If you’d been there … in that fucking cell …’ I swallowed, trying to be angry and not tearful. ‘He let me down so badly, April. He jumped to the immediate conclusion that I must have slept with someone else and then killed him, and he refused to see me to even ask about it.’ I used my thumb to wipe each eye, frustrated that I was once again tearful. I wanted to be stronger when I talked about you, Niall. To be the kind of woman who stands up to her awful husband and walks away with no regrets. ‘Even Patrick believed in me more than Niall did. And do you know what he was actually doing on Friday night? He was with Dina.’

April hissed between her teeth. ‘So there really was something going on with those two.’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ve had zero other explanation. He couldn’t even look me in the eye when we were released. How fucking dare he stand there and judge me after that? And I should just be angry but I’m so fucking sad.’