“But just as that happened, my father appeared at the door. I got to it before Chris could and I let him in. My father is a much bigger man than Chris, so once he was in the house, Chris didn’t challenge him.” Her eyes were wet. “I didn’t tell Dad what was happening. I just left with him that day and I haven’t gone back. I was afraid that if I stayed, I wouldn’t get another chance.”

“Probably a wise thing to do. And your father?”

She looked down. “I told him that Chris couldn’t cope with the diagnosis and I was better off on my own with my family to support me. That’s why Dad thinks that Chris was leaving me and not the other way around.”

I sat back, trying to take all this in. “When did all of this happen?”

“A few weeks ago. My sister Sue had decided to do the cycle and Dad had decided to get involved with it too, so I said I’d come along as support. I thought it would be a good way to get out of town for a while. Plus, I didn’t want to stay in Dad’s house on my own with Peadar. I was afraid Chris would come after me.”

“And have you seen or heard from Chris since?”

Lissa’s jaw tightened and a shadow crossed over her face. “That’s the thing. He hasn’t even sent me a text since that night, which isn’t like him. Dad’s disgusted that he hasn’t wanted to see Peadar. I was relieved. But …” She started pulling at her hair again, ripping one strand from the other.

I leaned forward. “But?”

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with fear. “I’d swear to God I saw him up here, this weekend.”

“Here? In Glendara?”

She nodded. “Last night, outside the guesthouse. I thought that he’d followed me here.”

The guesthouse that Bob Jameson was staying in before he was killed, I thought. The guesthouse he was taken from to his death. Was it possible there was a connection?

Lissa ran her hand through her hair. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe I was imagining it. I’m so nervous now and it was dark and raining. Maybe I’m being paranoid. Maybe he didn’t even mean it when he threatened me.”

And with that, I saw in Lissa what I so often did, an abused person desperate to believe the person they love didn’t mean to hurt them, in the face of all the evidence to the contrary.

“But he’s already shown you what he is capable of,” I said quietly. “He hit you.”

“But I don’t know if he seriously meant he was going to kill me. He was just mad at what I’d been doing.” Lissa’s eyes were wide and pleading.