‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Kim stood, holding up her hands in front of her, defensively.

‘You’re just like her. You’re just like Toni – full of it.’ Shirley picked up the wine bottle and held it, ready to strike. ‘You all think you’re so damn clever. Toni, fucking my husband behind my back. Did she really think I wouldn’t find out?’

‘You did know …’ Kim stepped backwards, away from the deranged woman closing in on her.

‘I found out. Stupid bitch was sending him text messages. Subtle, eh?’ Shirley roared with venom.

‘Then,’ her eyes were wild, ‘she goes and gets pregnant!’ Kim remembered that Shirley couldn’t have children and realised why it would have been such an insult. ‘I couldn’t have Grant leave me for that bitch. If he’d known about the baby it would have ruined everything. So, I answered her text messages on his phone and told her to get rid.’

‘Then,’ Shirley spat with rage, ‘then she has the cheek to say he raped her and she didn’t want it anyway. Of all the vicious lies … as if my husband would rape a skank like that. I bet she was begging for it.’

By then Kim had her back to the garden wall and Shirley was still coming towards her, holding the bottle high, ready to swing.

‘So I waited. I waited for the bitch to get rid of the brat. I was patient, you have to give me that. I took my time.’

Kim wanted to scream but found that no words would come out.

‘It had been so carefully planned. I was sure I’d get away with it, but then Janet had to go and ruin everything.’ A flash of genuine sadness crossed Shirley’s face. ‘The stupid cow had been following me. She had it on film. She’d recorded everything. I didn’t have a choice.’

‘You always have a choice,’ Kim managed to say.

‘No. She would have ruined it all. I had to make her shut up.’

‘Is that what you’re going to do to me, too?’ Kim’s eyes were fixed on the wine bottle that was glinting in the sun.

‘It’s not about you.’ Shirley shook her head. ‘That’s what none of you ever get. It’s never about you. It’s about me.’ And with one swift movement she brought the bottle crashing down towards Kim, just as Barrett and Palmer, followed by a number of uniformed officers, smashed down Kim’s front door.

23

9am 29 June

Shirley had not slept well. The cell was small, hot and uncomfortable. She’d refused the tray of nasty looking food that had been offered to her, as well as the breakfast that had been shoved through the hatch in the door at 7.30am. Her blood-spattered clothes had been taken away by the forensic team and she was wearing blue scratchy overalls.