‘Three’s a crowd,’ she says in a sing-song voice. ‘I don’t think Aidan wanted Martha dead. I’m the one he wants dead. Maybe he did. If he did, he’d have stopped wanting it when she jumped. Too late. You freeze, I suppose. It happens too quickly.’ Mary’s hands are shaking. ‘Once she’d gone down, there was no way I could get her up. I tried—’ She breaks off. ‘Aidan could have got her up, he could have lifted her, but he didn’t try. He called an ambulance. He ran to the phone. Ran away. He saw I was struggling, but he didn’t help me.’ She breathes hard, locked into the terrible memory. ‘He froze. When you can’t stand the situation you’re in, you tell yourself it’s not real—it’s an illusion. I told myself the same thing.’

‘Why didn’t he tell me any of this?’ I blurt out.

‘Did you tell him about Cherub Cottage?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

I shake my head. ‘I couldn’t.’ Couldn’t tell anyone. Until I had to.

‘Maybe he wanted you to carry on loving him,’ says Mary. ‘How could you, once you knew he’d stood by and let someone die?’

‘He told me he’d killed you. Why did he say that?’

She rubs her thumb along her lips and back again. ‘He wants me dead. He’s going to kill me, or try to. It’s a threat.’

‘No! Aidan’s not a killer.’

She laughs. ‘Don’t kid yourself.’

‘It makes no sense. If he wanted to threaten you, why not do it to your face?’

‘He’s clever. I’d have called the police, wouldn’t I? I assume it’s an offence to threaten someone’s life.’

‘I don’t know.’ I can’t think straight, can’t process any of this.

‘Of course it is. It must be. There’d have been reprisals for him, and he doesn’t want that. He thinks he’s suffered enough.’

‘Why? Why has he suffered?’

‘His childhood,’ says Mary, assuming I know what she’s referring to.

I feel ashamed of my ignorance. Aidan never wanted to talk about his family. I didn’t push it; I was equally reluctant to talk about my parents. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

‘He tried to save her later,’ Mary mutters.

‘Aidan tried to save Martha?’

‘Once he’d rung the ambulance. He’s no weakling—well, you know that. It was easy for him to get her down. The emergency services operator must have told him to do it: lift her up, or cut her down or whatever. Stop the rope from strangling her.’

I don’t want to have to visualise it.