‘You said he,’ DC Stone points out. ‘Did you see your assailant?’

Mark thinks back. He assumed it was Rudy attacking him at the time, and again when he woke up. But he didn’t actually see him. ‘No, not really. There was a broken mirror on the floor – an accident from earlier – and I saw bits of him in that. Black trainer, black cargo pants.’ He’s back in the squat again. Confused, terrified, his arms flailing. He wipes his sweaty palms against the hard cotton sheet. ‘And then maybe …’

‘Maybe what?’

‘Just before I lost consciousness, the grip got tighter.’ He can see the dark figure now, looming over him, face contorting with the effort of pulling. ‘They sort of leaned over me, and I got a flash of their face.’

Those cold eyes.

‘Fuck,’ he exclaims.

‘Mark!’

‘What is it?’

‘I know who it was! It wasn’t Rudy!’

‘Who’s Rudy?’

‘It was that woman!’

Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Kat

God, that was terrifying. She knew that she’d been careful last night, and had made a huge effort to avoid Groom & Bloom’s CCTV camera. But she hadn’t thought to check the footage, so when she retrieved it for those detectives, it was the first time she’d seen it. Thirty agonising minutes. But her vigilance had paid off; there was no video evidence of her being anywhere near the squat last night.

She’s also relieved that the detectives didn’t show up any earlier. When Kat first arrived at the salon, her mind was so scattered that she could barely function. She gave Sally some lame excuse for being late – that she overslept, even though she was wide awake by 6 a.m., still wired from the previous night – and disappeared into the grooming room. As always, it was the dogs who calmed her down, at least enough to pretend. Cookie the tail-wagging cavapoo, Bella the maltipoo with prima donna tendencies, and then Ziggy, the cockerpoo who always persuades her to part with one extra treat.

But she knows her sanctity is only a temporary reprieve. She can’t hide forever; there is still so much to do.

Yesterday she thought she was making progress, getting closer to Beth, almost enough to reach the truth. She’d worked out a plan, and it was supposed to go smoothly. But now Mark is in hospital and Saskia won’t release her interfering tentacles. And she’s just found out that Beth’s parents were killed in a car accident not long after the two of them fell out. So much tragedy in one family; how can that be allowed? Kat thinks about the Beth she knew – Ellie – and how badly her brother’s death affected her. What kind of mental state must she have been in when her mum and dad died so soon after? Kat’s heart almost bursts with a yearning to have been there, by Beth’s side. Attentive. Vigilant to her needs.