‘No. And I’m not going to. I’ve made sure the local cops are on to it, so she doesn’t have to worry.’

‘But on the phone, you got the impression Paula believes this guy is dangerous?’

‘Well, yeah. Yes.’

‘Did she mention his family being in danger?’

‘She did. Fucking hell, Anita—are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

‘I told you: I don’t know.’

There was another long pause. Rohan obviously knew there was something.

Finally, he said, ‘Okay. Well, I think it’d be good if you call her. She sounds in a bad way.’

‘I will. Thanks. Thanks for letting me know. Bye.’

Anita was shaking when she ended the call. Should she have told Rohan she was afraid her friend was planning to kill that man? Was that what a good friend would have done? What any responsible decent person would have done?

She circled her tiny living room. Chances were Paula wouldn’t do anything. The fact she’d contacted Rohan was surely a sign she’d decided to operate through official channels rather than inject lethal substances into bad guys as part of her own unofficial protection service. This would be okay. Rohan would send the local coppers in to nab the bad guy and it would all be okay. There was no need to offer up Paula’s secrets to the police.

She spun around to pick up her phone and tap Paula’s number. When it went to voicemail, Anita breathed a bit after the beep but then hung up without speaking.

What message could she have left? ‘Hi, Paula. It’s me. Hey, are you about to murder another man? Maybe better if you don’t. Call me. Bye.’

She put the phone on the table next to her laptop. On that laptop were all the files collected for the feature article she’d put off writing. Case after case of women murdered by their partners. Men who had strangled, shot, bludgeoned, incinerated, stabbed, terrorised and destroyed those women.

Anita felt a spike of satisfaction to think Paula might be about to rid the world of one of those fucking monsters. Let Dr Kaczmarek make a hit list and kill some monsters and get away with it. The fantasy was thrilling, but only for a brief intoxicating moment, before it burned up in its own angry blaze like high-octane fuel. That kind of wrong-headed impulse had drawn Paula into this mess.

Anita’s next thought was that it was up to her to find Paula and stop her from doing something foolish or dangerous. Whatever state her friend was in, whatever she’d done, Anita must try to help her.

Paula must have finally dozed off for several hours after the call to Rohan.