His mother had begged him not to get involved, and he had managed to convince her that he would do nothing. But when she went to bed, he had rooted through all the drawers in the dresser for anything that might lead him where he needed to go.

There had been a sheet of paper, what looked like a private investigator’s report in there, which gave him a curious mixture of pride and sadness at the ingenuity his brother had showed that led him to his death.

Liam had slipped out early this morning, still jet-lagged and unable to sleep properly, leaving a note that stated he would most definitely be home later that day and that she wasn’t to worry. Then he had gone into town and hired a car, thankful that he was able to use his Thai licence because his UK one had long expired, and got on the road to Kent.

It wasn’t hard to find the house, using his smartphone GPS.

Nice little place, which reminded him of holidays they’d had in Hunstanton as a kid. Not exactly where he’d imagined her ending up, that was for sure. In his head, he had pictured her living in some riverside apartment over the Thames, or in a massive pile in the country.

When he was informed he had arrived at his destination, Liam sat in the car, listening to the cooling tick of the engine, thinking about what he was going to do.

His hands shook a little and he squeezed them into fists and then flexed them.

Getting out of the car, he stretched his stiff back and began to walk towards number 15.

Liam stood at the gate and hesitated. He could see into a sitting room, where a woman – yes, it was her – was holding a baby to her shoulder and patting its back a bit robotically. She looked like crap, he was gratified to see, although still beautiful.

That’s what had fooled him the first time though. He had swallowed the childhood fairy tale lie that monsters were always ugly.

ELLIOTT

‘I got croissants and pain-au-chocolat,’ I called out, ‘so I hope you’re hungry, although it’s possible I may have eaten some of them on the way back.’

I could hear unhappy cries from upstairs now I was properly inside. My heart seemed to fall in my chest at the thought of a Saturday morning so different from the one I had been hoping for.

My plan was to try and behave normally, to make Anya feel as safe as she possibly could with everything that was happening. But now I had visions of her and the baby both in tears upstairs. So it was a surprise when I heard her call out, ‘In here,’ from the kitchen. We didn’t usually leave Livi to cry.