‘As soon as he was out of the door Robert grabbed the shotgun from Charlotte and placed it on the breakfast bar,’ he said. ‘She burst into tears and ran upstairs again. Mary started crying too and Robert tried to console her. Nothing else happened for about twenty minutes. Then Charlotte came back down holding her phone. Her parents then had a go at her and it all kicked off again. I’d never seen Charlotte get so worked up and I suspected she’d been popping pills and putting away too much booze.’

‘So, what happened then?’ James prodded.

Nash blinked repeatedly as he struggled to get the words out.

‘Charlotte learned the truth about who she was,’ he said. ‘And what followed will haunt me for the rest of my life.’

James leaned closer. ‘Take your time, Mr Nash. Tell us exactly what you saw.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

CHRISTMAS EVE

Robert and Mary are sitting side by side on the sofa, still reeling from the shock of what happened twenty or so minutes ago.

When they hear Charlotte coming back down the stairs, they’re expecting her to show some contrition. A grovelling apology would suffice.

But she doesn’t. Instead, she ignores them both and goes straight to the fridge where she takes out a new bottle of wine.

Robert can feel the anger building inside him. She clearly doesn’t give a toss that she’s ruined their last Christmas here.

Mary is watching her with a contemptuous look on her face and Robert fears she’ll explode at any moment. Instinct tells him it’s going to get very ugly.

Mary’s eyes follow Charlotte as she unscrews the cap on the wine bottle while making a point of not looking at them.

‘You could at least clear up the broken glass on the floor before you have another drink,’ Mary tells her.

Charlotte lifts her eyes and fixes Mary with a hard, unfriendly stare.

‘I thought you would have done that by now,’ she says. ‘If you can’t be bothered then I’ll do it when I’m ready. Just avoid treading on it in the meantime. Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.’

Mary shakes her head. ‘Why do you always have to spoil things? Did you deliberately set out to cause trouble tonight?’

‘That’s typical of you,’ Charlotte snarls through gritted teeth, her reaction clearly fuelled by alcohol. ‘Blame me even though that shitty boyfriend of mine is the one in the wrong.’

Mary stands up and steps towards the kitchen.

‘But what you did was completely over the top. It’s time you learned to control that vile temper of yours. Do you realise what damage you could have done with that gun? You would have killed him if it had gone off.’