‘With me? Nothing. But with you? Everything.’ She drew out the last word. ‘I mean, you tried to drown Jo in the bath—’

‘That was an accident!’

‘So you say. But that’s not what the world thinks. That’s where I got the idea, by the way, of how to get rid of you both – by drowning.’

He shook his head. ‘What do you mean, both?’

‘Did I forget to mention that? In your agony, you’re going to take your daughter with you. A beautiful – but tragic – final daddy-daughter moment.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘Please, no. Don’t hurt her, Alice. She’s your child!’

She laughed. ‘My child? I don’t have children, Tom. I can’t have them.’

‘You did! You gave birth to her.’

‘I can give birth to them, but I don’t have children. When I look at her I feel nothing. She’s the same as any other person. Nothing. And that’s the problem. I’m tethered to her for ever. And I can’t do that, Tom. You can’t expect me to do that. She’s ruining my life. So she has to go.’

He looked at his wife and he saw nothing that he recognized. Her eyes were empty pools. This was impossible to believe.

But it was happening. That was the one fact he had to cling to. This was happening, and he somehow had to stop it.

‘You’re insane,’ he said. ‘You’re totally insane.’

‘You would call me that. But it’s you – and all the rest of you – who are insane. You have this gift of a life and you choose to waste it on a fucking baby?’ She laughed again. ‘It’s not me who’s lost their mind. The funny thing is, I would have stayed with you. I would have let you live. You’re harmless, a nonentity. You’re a useful disguise. But once she arrived I had to get rid of her, and the only way I could was by having it be you who did it. Under pressure, you lost your mind. The evidence was all there – I should have seen it.’

‘A disguise? We’re married.’

She laughed. ‘You’re weak, Tom, and stupid, but I could live with that. Not the baby, though.’

‘So you hated our daughter all along? Is that what you’re saying? There’s nothing about her you like?’

‘There was one benefit,’ she said. ‘I had an excuse to be out at night in the car. And when I was, I’d see these people walking, all alone, and it reminded me of someone I used to be, and what she used to do.’

As he listened, her words – and their meaning – started to sink in.

‘It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the Crucifix Killer.’

She nodded and smiled.

‘What about the letters?’