‘I didn’t change my mind,’ she said. She pointed at him, her finger jabbing. ‘You think I wrote my novels as a secret message to you? That I’d think it was a clever idea for you to kidnap my children so I would have an excuse to leave my family?’ She shook her head, her anger getting out of control. ‘That’s fucking insane, Guy. You’re fucking insane. That’s the problem here. You’re crazy. You’re utterly deluded. And in the end everyone will know it, because there’ll be no Angelica and Guy. As soon as you turn your back, I’ll be gone. So all you can do is keep me here forever, but that will mean you accept you got this wrong, and I’m not sure you want that.’ She took a deep breath. ‘So accept it, Guy. There’s only one option left. Let me go, and I promise you’ll never hear from me again. This is over, Guy. You must see that.’

There was a long pause. He seemed to be having an internal struggle. Then he looked at her, and the fury on his face was gone. He smiled his fake smile.

‘I do,’ he said. ‘It’s over, all right. But not in the way you think. We’re leaving.’

‘Where to, Guy? Wherever it is, you’ll have to live with the knowledge that I detest you. I loathe you.’

‘Detest? Loathe?’ he said. ‘No. You won’t be detesting or loathing anybody. This is over, Annabelle.’ He smiled. ‘But I can’t do it here. The police will be back – they’re coming to take my DNA – and we have to be gone by then. So we’re leaving.’

She felt suddenly deflated. In that moment he had changed, and not for the better. The mask was back; the anger had drained out of him. She got the distinct impression from the way he looked at her that she had almost ceased to exist, at least for him.

She did not know what had just happened, but she didn’t like it at all.

Wynne

Wynne listened as the phone rang. The police station was in a small village so it was perfectly possible there was no one there. It was irritating; she’d have to try later, by which time it may be too late in the day to get Guy Sanderson’s DNA test done. Maybe there was a large station in a nearby town she could use.

She was about to hang up when someone answered the phone.

‘PC Rainford,’ a male voice said.

She put the phone on speaker and beckoned to Dudek to join her.

‘Hello,’ Wynne said. ‘I’m glad you’re there. I’m Detective Inspector Jane Wynne. I’m with a colleague, DS Dudek. We’re working on a missing person case.’

‘How can I help?’ Rainford said.