Nothing to see but black road and hard rain striking the windscreen and white lines passing beneath the vehicle, like laser fire from a craft in deep space. Nothing to hear but the engine and low murmurs of grief from Marc…

And then, in the road, they appear. Not one but two shapes. Unmoving, lying together in the centre of the road, smashed by rain. Smashed in other ways.

Oh Jesus no – Marc hisses.

… but that was all she could bear to watch.

‘Dashcam? It was recorded?’

‘I never watched the whole video. I couldn’t. And you know I never went back to work. I went out, to try, but I couldn’t. Couldn’t face it. I told Marc I was leaving. Leaving work and leaving London. He was okay with that, which I didn’t expect. He said it would be a good new start for me, but I think he was glad that I wouldn’t be around the people he knew, wouldn’t let our secret out.

‘But he had one final thing I had to do. A few days later, he contacted me. By then he’d heard that the police were looking for a blue 05 Punto. They knew the type of car from paint flecks. The police were tracing it. They wanted to analyse all cars of that type in London. Marc’s wife, Iliana, he said she’d arranged for the car to be scrapped. Her family runs scrapyards. He said they would give me another car. Just the same. I didn’t really understand until he explained. It was to fool the police. I was shocked that he’d told her, but he had, and she hadn’t just stuck by his side, she’d actually thought up a plan to fool everyone.

‘And I had to go through with it. Even if I’d sold the car, which I wanted to, the police would have found it. He said they’d know it was my car that… hit those poor hikers. I know it was covering up a crime, but I had no choice. Marc would ruin me. I would lose you, and we wouldn’t have Josie. And I just couldn’t go to prison, not for an accident.

‘But Marc said he couldn’t be tarnished by me, not driving drunk. But I hadn’t been drinking, so I knew then, when he said that, that he wasn’t going to take any blame. He was going to lie, if it came out. But he was the cause of it, Nick, because he tried to touch me. It distracted me. I knew if he told the police he knew nothing about it, but that I was drinking, I would go to prison for a long time. So I told him, if the police ever found out, I would tell them the truth.