‘You left the back door open. That’s not wise – anybody could come in. Let me fix that for you,’ Caitlin/Catherine said, waddling over to it, locking the door and pocketing the key. Meredith was about to shout at her when she turned, and the expression of sheer malevolence on her face made Meredith pause: ‘I have something of yours,’ Caitlin said. ‘Or should I say someone? I have someone of yours.’

The breath stopped in Meredith’s throat. ‘Pete. You’ve got Pete. Why? Is he OK? What happened? Where is he?’

She couldn’t stop herself grabbing at Caitlin’s arm. Caitlin looked down at her hand with utter disdain, peeling her fingers away.

That was the moment Meredith lost it. All the stress and tension of Pete’s disappearance crammed itself into her head until she felt as if it was about to explode. She got so close to the other woman’s face that she could see all her disgusting blackheads and open pores and smell her rancid breath.

She screamed at her, any sense of reality slipping away, as if she was in a film or a weird nightmare. ‘Stop playing with me, you mad bitch. Where is he? Tell me right now or I’m calling the police and you’ll get carted back off to whatever loony asylum you’ve been mouldering in for the last thirty fucking years.’

Caitlin pushed strong hands into Meredith’s chest, palms landing hard on her breasts – whether accidentally or purposefully Meredith didn’t know; all she could see was the rage in her eyes as Caitlin shoved her away, hard, then shook her head.

‘Oh, dear, dear, dear, Meredith, that won’t do at all. You don’t speak to me like that. Ever. Not if you want to see your brother alive again. Do you understand? I wouldn’t have thought you could afford to risk losing someone else, after Ralph and Andrea. I mean, apart from Ralph’s pathetic little wifey, you don’t actually seem to have anybody else. Bit weird, isn’t it, to get to fifty-two years of age and have so few friends? I was almost running out of people to choose! But Pete’s obviously the prize.’

Meredith realised she was hyperventilating, fear rising off her in waves.

‘Why? Why would you do this to me? To Paula, and Pete? I haven’t even set eyes on you for decades!’

Caitlin barked out a laugh. ‘And that, Meredith, is your answer. You haven’t seen me in FUCKING DECADES because YOU fucking got me locked up in 1983 and I haven’t been out since. Not till NOW! How do you THINK that makes me feel about you, you cheating slut?’

Even through the terror, Meredith felt an outraged sense of injustice. What the hell was this madwoman talking about?

‘How could that possibly have been my fault?’