He hadn’t got to Mary. No one had. I made that part up.

She would have told him that day when he came to the den to leave me alone. That she would tell everyone what he was like. What he had done to me.

I believe that’s why he killed Mary. To stop her doing that.

He had a van for work, although he never brought it to our house when he came for Eleanor. But Mary and I saw it sometimes up the back track near the reservoir. That’s when he used to spy on us.

After Mary disappeared, I tried to tell Eleanor what Eric was really like, but she wouldn’t listen to me. She said I was too young to understand about men.

My sister was an innocent in all of this, and he said he would kill her if I told the truth about him. I believed he would because of Mary.

My father told me to forget that day and everything that had happened. Eleanor married Eric and they moved away. I never had to see him again.

I made myself believe Mary wasn’t dead. That she’d run away. That it was my fault Eric abused me. That I was the one to blame for everything.

Until I saw the crow and the dead cat walking past the cottage. Then I knew Mary was dead, and she wanted her body to be found.

When that did happen, that’s when I started to unravel. Marge and the other women at the recovery cafe tried to help me remember. When they began to succeed, I became very frightened. When I tried to cut my wrists, I failed, because of the crow. It flew at my head and I dropped the knife. I believed the crow was sent by Mary. That she wanted me to stay alive to tell the truth.

Then I saw Eric. He was in Stirling, watching me. Reminding me of my promise. I think the note was from him too. By then I was ill. Everything became muddled. I had stopped talking to Jack for a while, but now I did it all the time, because it helped.

I thought I was dying, so I went to say goodbye to Jack at the cemetery. That’s when I met Detective McCreadie again. I didn’t recognize him the first time, when he was in King’s Knot with the dog, but I did now. I was running down the path in the woods. I thought Eric was chasing me. That’s when Detective McCreadie stepped out to catch me. I like to think Mary made that possible.

He took me home and Lucy looked after me. The doctor came and after he treated me I started to feel better. But I couldn’t stay there, because of Eric.

If he thought I’d told anyone about him and Mary, he would keep his promise and kill my sister.

So I went to see Eleanor. I tried to tell her, but how do you tell your sister that her husband abused her wee sister? That he’d threatened to kill Eleanor if I breathed a word of it to anyone? That I thought he’d killed Mary and buried her out on the moor?