Luckily, having been brought up round here, I know all the short cuts. I can’t get around the back of the house without her seeing me, so I cut through a copper-birch-lined alleyway and come out at the end of my road. My heart is beating fast and I start to jog. As I pass her car, she jumps out.

‘Caroline, you must have got back before me.’

‘Just been for some milk.’

I fumble with my keys and try to put everything in order in my mind. My overnight bag in the hotel. Jamie. My grandmother’s engagement ring. The Facebook #cheatingbastard #allgirlstogether thread. My hand is shaking and I can feel tears rising.

We go into the kitchen. She sits down opposite me and I can tell there is more. She gets out her little notebook.

‘OK, so we still don’t have a link between Peter Daubney and Brian Patterson, the other fraud victim, apart from you, or an identity for the stalker. So we’re working on that. But the other matter, well, it seems to have blown out of proportion. Your ex-husband has been down to the station with his solicitor demanding that you are arrested.’

Of course he has. I don’t say anything. She looks at me and waits for a reaction.

‘To complicate matters, the holdall was found at his mother’s house.’

This time I gasp.

‘You’re kidding me! But why …?’

‘It was found this morning with some other things.’

‘Right. So she was posting the pictures?’

She sighs. I study her face. She looks tired. Dark circles under her eyes. I wonder if she has kids and a husband. If she can possibly imagine what I’ve been through.

‘That’s the problem. We have no evidence it was her.’

‘But she had the bag. When you thought I had the bag, you thought it was me posting the pictures. Have you charged her? And where are my children?’

She shakes her head. ‘The thing is, she has no motive to post, well, pictures like that of her son. And she denies it. We would have to prove it. And there are other things. I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more. It’s more than my job’s worth. But what I will say is that your ex-husband is gunning for you. He absolutely insists that you are behind this.’

She’s warning me. She’s telling me to be careful, without telling me. I’ll take that. But I need to know something else.

‘Have you got children?’

She reddens. She’s actually wondering whether to tell me or not.

‘Yeah, I have.’

‘Then you’ll understand why I need to know where my children are.’

‘Yes. Yes. They’re with his mother.’

I breathe out. So they’re not with Jack and one of his lying girlfriends. Not playing happy families with Katy and Jamie.