‘And, of course, everyone else in the place was looking on as if I was being totally irrational – even Scott and Teresa, because they didn’t know, they didn’t realize. They recognized it was a wedding picture, but not what Gayle had done… And why would she do that, by the way?’ Anna knew she was jumping around all over the place, not finishing one thought before she started on another, but she just couldn’t get her brain to sit still. ‘Why? There were plenty of lovely pictures of him on his own, taken the very same day.’

‘Why do you think she did it? Do you have any ideas?’

Anna stared at the shadowy humps of the sand dunes beyond the garden. ‘Because it was perfect, that’s what she said. It was the perfect one. And Gayle is all about perfection, all about control.’ She let out yet another heavy sigh. ‘And I’m just so over being controlled by her. I couldn’t do it anymore. So, when she gave me one of her looks and said I was being insensitive, I lost it.’ She winced again, remembering the shocked looks on the rest of the family’s faces.

‘She knew what she’d done, Brody. She knew what I was talking about. I could see it in her eyes. But she didn’t even have the grace to look guilty. So I told her that she was a cold-hearted, manipulative bitch and that I was glad Spencer was dead because it meant I’d never have to see her again.’

Anna swallowed. She’d felt wonderful at the time, slightly euphoric, even. But now, when she thought about it, she just felt sick. ‘I went too far, didn’t I? This is my problem. It’s always been my problem. I get so worked up and I can’t think straight, and I say things I never should say, that I don’t even really mean.’

‘You didn’t mean she was a cold-hearted, manipulative bitch?’ The smile was back in Brody’s voice, but Anna ignored it.

‘Oh, yes. I meant that.’

He finally cracked and stifled a laugh.

‘But I shouldn’t have said that I was glad Spencer was dead. I could never be glad about that…’ She trailed off, her thoughts taking a more morbid turn.

‘Anna?’

‘Yes?’ she replied softly.

‘How do you feel now?’

Anna shifted on the metal chair, hugging her cardigan around herself. ‘Weird. I thought I’d be upset, and I am… There are moments when I get all fired up and angry again when I think about it, when I turn it all over in my head, but in my heart…’ She placed a palm against her chest and waited, allowing herself to feel the beat beneath her hand, the steady pulse of life. ‘I feel… better. Free. But that could just be the eye of the hurricane, couldn’t it? It could just be that I’ve got no energy left to feel anything else. It might all start up again with raging force in the morning.’