‘Give me some credit,’ says Nick. ‘You’re my fiancée. I’m on your side. And I’m on Liberty’s side too.’

‘Really?’

‘Of course I am.’ Nick crosses his arms, fists automatically going to pump out his biceps. ‘Come on, Lorna. I’m big enough to overlook a bit of teenage anger. Of course I’m on her side. Poor kid must be confused as hell right now.’

‘I need your car keys.’

‘Come inside. I’ll make you a cup of tea—’

‘Caffeine is a stimulant. If you want to calm me down, offer me Jack Daniels.’

‘Just come inside—’

‘Nick, I’m not going to sit around drinking tea while my daughter is with a monster.’

‘So what are you going to do? Drive right back there and get yourself arrested? You’re not going to help Liberty from a prison cell. Let’s make some calls and find someone who can help us.’

‘Like who?’

‘I don’t know. A good solicitor.’

‘Michael would run rings around a solicitor. My sister. I need Dee. She was with me when it all happened. She knows the truth. She saved me. She knows about Annalise.’

‘Who’s Annalise?’

I can’t meet his eye.

‘Lorna?’

‘Annalise was Cat Cannon’s daughter,’ I say. ‘You’ve heard of Cat Cannon, right?’

‘Cat Cannon …’ Nick’s eyes shuffle through memory files until he finds the right one. ‘The heroin-addict singer with lipstick all over her face? Who fell on her backside on The Tonight Show?’

‘She’s clean now. From what I hear.’

‘I didn’t know she had a daughter.’

‘Yeah. She did.’

‘Wait a minute – Annalise … that’s Liberty’s middle name.’

‘Yes.’

‘So what happened to this girl? This Annalise person?’

‘Officially, nothing. She’s a missing person.’

‘And unofficially?’

‘Can we talk about something else, Nick? I’ve gone to too many dark places today. We need to call Dee.’

‘You’re sure you don’t want me to go to this man’s house?’ Nick asks. ‘See if I can get Libs to come home?’

‘No one should go to Michael’s house yet,’ I say. ‘You’re right, Nick. We’d just get arrested. This is a chess game, right? Michael’s good at chess. He’ll be expecting that move.’

‘So …’

I sigh. ‘We’ll do what you said. Drink tea. Stimulating tea. And work out a move he doesn’t expect.’

Liberty

Through glass doors, we watch a black helicopter tip and tilt over the huge lawn beyond Michael’s swimming pool.

‘The extravagance of it,’ says Diane, lips set in distaste. ‘Catherine Cannon always has to make an entrance. She can’t come through the gates like everyone else.’

‘She’s one of a kind,’ says Michael. ‘And I’d have it no other way.’

The helicopter settles, giving the kitchen doors one last rattle.