There was absolute silence in the room, then Fergus shrieked and pulled his face away from his mother. Five long slashes had been ripped down each cheek where she’d dragged her nails. He jumped backwards and she flew at him. Tom and Ray had to hold her back. Richard Holland was paralysed, unable to process what had just happened.

‘Where is she?’ Caroline screamed. ‘Where’s my baby?’

Fergus fell back onto the couch, stunned. For a minute he said nothing, watching his mother strain against the strength of the two men grappling with her.

She wanted to kill him.

Defiance filled her son’s face.

‘You lied,’ he snarled. ‘You fucking lied. “You stole my heart.” Sure. But only for a few years, huh? Until that bitch came along. I’ll tell you what I did with her. What I should have done with her when she was born. What you do with any feral cat. I drowned her. I fucking drowned her. Satisfied now?’

Caroline howled and collapsed to the floor between Tom and Ray. Richard Holland stumbled back onto the couch, unable to stand, unable to talk.

‘Fergus Holland,’ Tom said, facing the young man. ‘I’m arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Fiona Holland. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do or say may be given in evidence.’

CHAPTER 42

It didn’t feel like a day for a funeral. In Tom’s memory, every funeral he’d ever attended had complemented the mood of the mourners – lashing rain, dark clouds, freezing cold.

But this morning, the sun was splitting the stones and the birds sang in the sycamore trees dotted around the graveyard.

Maybe this was better, for June. After all, she’d been a sunny person. They’d played her favourite piece of music in the church and it hadn’t been some maudlin number that made everybody weep even more. Louise had leaned close to Tom’s ear and whispered, ‘Isn’t that from the horse racing? I didn’t know June was into horses.’

‘It’s A Musical Joke,’ Tom responded, then, seeing the confusion on his wife’s face, added: ‘That’s the name of the piece. Sean’s into all the serious, heavy compositions and June used to set up the CD player in his car so it would play that every time he turned it on. She said it made her laugh to think of him cursing and looking for his “morbid requiems”.’

They’d both smiled, glad Sean was allowing his wife to have the last laugh.

Tom kept his arm gripped around Louise’s waist in the graveyard, ostensibly to support her but more to comfort himself with the reminder that she was there.