‘I have a natural affinity with people.’

Jake refrained from comment.

‘I perceive what they’re feeling,’ she continued, ‘often without them having to describe it.’

‘Are you saying you don’t feel any responsibility for Ava’s death?’

‘Why should I?’

Her indignation made it easy for him to continue.

‘You do know why you’re the only counsellor in the area, don’t you?’

She squared her shoulders. ‘I’m the only one who could stick it out.’

‘No, because your father ran the others out of town. Did you help him?’

She looked at him in disbelief. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘A month or two after opening for business they each started reporting vandalism—’

‘I don’t know anything about that.’

‘Bricks through back windows, dog shit under the door, that kind of thing.’

‘I never witnessed anything like that. Why would he do that?’

‘He made certain you were the only counsellor in the area, and he was the one who assigned your work so he could gather information on the people of Dunton. And he used it to keep the town under his thumb.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘He’d send you to talk to victims to find out things they wouldn’t tell the police, then he’d pump you for information afterwards. He essentially used you to spy on crime victims.’

She looked away. ‘It wasn’t like that.’

‘Why did you tell him about Charlotte’s private conversation with Ava O’Brien?’

‘That was just our regular review. It’s part of my employment conditions to do that.’

Jake shook his head. ‘Gossiping with your father about everything you hear from clients is not part of your job.’

‘It still doesn’t mean he had anything to do with the other counsellors leaving town.’

‘I think he did. Every attack on their premises happened at a time when he happened to be off-duty, and he was the officer who investigated all of them. Unsurprisingly, he came to the same conclusion in each case—that it was vandals from elsewhere passing through town.’

‘So? It probably was. Most of the crime that happens here is people from out of town.’

Jake despaired. ‘That’s completely false.’

‘Whatever. I’m not responsible for what happened to those people or Ava O’Brien. And it sounds like you don’t have anything you can possibly charge me with.’

Jake lost all patience with her.

‘So, did your father know about your baby? Did Max?’

Stony silence.

‘Evelyn? Did Max know you were pregnant when he left to live with his mother?’

A barely perceptible shake of her head. ‘How did you …?’

‘Your reaction when Murphy told you about the source of the children in the home.’