‘Interview by DS Mark Davis and DC Gemma McMeekin with Meredith Vincent, commenced at nineteen forty on Monday, June the eighteenth, 2018. Right, Meredith, thanks for coming in. We already have your statements from the scenes about the discovery of the bodies of both Ralph Allerton and Andrea Horvath, but now that we have the results of the post-mortems back, and in the light of the new information you gave DC McMeekin earlier, we need to have another chat. Let’s start with Andrea. Talk us through the night before you found her, if you can?’

As Mavis spoke, Gemma scrutinised Meredith’s small figure, hunched in the chair opposite. It was almost impossible to imagine her ever screaming into a microphone on a stage, rapt fans – like Mavis, or at least his older brother – moshing in the front rows of the audience in front of her, commanding their attention, soaking it up, the trademark thick, black eye make-up and wild spiky black hair making her instantly recognisable. ‘Riot Grrls’, they were known as, apparently, back in those days. Gemma was young enough to be confused about the distinctions between them and punks – as far as she could tell, there was no difference. Perhaps it was an era thing.

Today Meredith Vincent couldn’t have looked anything less like a pop star. She sat staring at the table, her face bare and her thin mousy hair held back from her face with a plain band. She wore the running gear she’d been wearing earlier to do the gardening; not the expensive patterned stuff that cost a fortune from Sweaty Betty, but some faded grey Lycra leggings and a zip-up hoody that had bleach spots down the front of it. There were black circles beneath her eyes, and her skin had a parchment-like pallor to it, which had intensified when Gemma mentioned the autopsies. Her cheekbones were still high, and her eyes large and vivid – echoes of her past beauty, but it was clear to Gemma that the woman had made a conscious effort to minimise her assets, not enhance them.

‘This is a nightmare,’ she whispered, picking at the skin around her fingernails.

Mavis attempted to arrange his features into a sympathetic expression. ‘I appreciate it’s very difficult. Just talk us through what you know. It doesn’t matter if you’re repeating stuff you said before.’