Shaking the question from her mind, she sat back down at the table and remembered that her earlier question had gone unanswered. Why was Hailey here in the first place?

‘Did Matt ring you? Ask you to come round?’ She frowned. ‘Because that’s not fair if he did.’

Hailey took a big glug of her tea, put her mug down. ‘No. I’ve been having a bit of a clear-out now Cassie’s away. I was sorting through her clothes and there’s loads of stuff she’s grown out of that I thought might fit the girls.’

‘Oh, right. Good. Thank you.’ It wasn’t what Sara was expecting to hear and it put her on the back foot for a moment. She looked around for bags of clothes. ‘Go on then, let’s have a look at what you’ve got.’

Hailey gave an embarrassed laugh, a flush of pink colouring her cheeks. ‘That’s the stupid thing. I packed it all up in bags and managed to leave them at home. Honestly, I’d forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on.’

Sara stared at her sister, who was picking at a bit of egg that was stuck to the table, left over from breakfast. She had the definite feeling there was something Hailey wasn’t telling her, the clothes an excuse to cover up the real reason why she was in her house. But then I’m not being up-front either, am I?

She chewed at her lip – on the brink of telling Hailey what she’d done – then stopped herself. Hailey worked in a position of trust and had a close relationship with the police, several of the young people she worked with being ex-offenders or deemed to be at risk of offending. What if she tells me to confess or go to the police? She gave an involuntary shiver, knew she couldn’t risk it. She couldn’t quiz Hailey about the real reason she was in her house either, because getting secrets out of her sister was a tricky challenge at the best of times – she had a tendency to go on the attack, winning arguments between them by shouting the loudest, which would upset Ezra. Ruin the whole evening trying to settle him down again.

They drank their tea in silence, Sara thinking that her life was veering out of control, the people around her dancing to a tune she couldn’t hear, moving to a rhythm she couldn’t grasp. She rubbed the muscles at the back of her neck, where the tension tended to knot them together, staring at the table, eyes unfocused as her thoughts whirled on a continuous loop.

‘I’m not sure this full-time working is doing you any good,’ Hailey said, apropos of nothing. Sara glanced across at her, saw concern in her eyes. ‘You’re looking stressed. What you need is a spa day. A bit of pampering and relaxation.’