The person – Graeme – worked here, at Minstead. One of the gardeners. Meredith felt a furious pulse throb in her neck. She’d seen him many times, crouching in a flowerbed, pruning, digging, weeding, never meeting Meredith’s eye or returning her ‘morning’ when she passed him on the way to work, or was out walking Ceri’s dog. Meredith had always assumed the man had learning difficulties, or was extremely shy, or just terminally antisocial. He’d even come into the shop once.

Oh God, she thought. No wonder he knew my movements, and Pete’s. He could’ve been watching them for months. Probably had been. It was him who decapitated the flowers in the front garden, who knocked all the stuff off the shelves, probably left the dead rat in the fireplace.

It was starting to make sense. This Graeme was Caitlin’s bitch. Caitlin was the one who ordered the attack on her all those years ago. Maybe Graeme had been inside too, in the intervening years, when things had gone quiet. Now they were both out – and Graeme clearly had been for some time.

Meredith was desperate to get to Pete, to climb into the pool and hug him, but it was as if Caitlin read her mind – or maybe she had unknowingly made a move forwards – because Caitlin snapped again: ‘I told you, don’t move. We’re going in a minute.’

Going? Going where?

‘I’m not going to kill you here,’ Caitlin added. ‘Thought we’d take a little walk first. So while we get him out, you can get your kit off too. Chop, chop.’

Meredith stared at her, stunned. ‘What?’

‘Kit off, cloth ears. I want you both naked.’

‘Why?’

Caitlin chuckled meanly. ‘Why not? You’re an exhibitionist, aren’t you? Prancing round for all those years like a cunt on stages, singing your stupid little songs … You both came into the world at the same time starkers, so you should both leave the same way.’

The woman wasn’t even making sense. This could not be happening, Meredith thought. It was just impossible.

If she stripped, she’d lose the knife. She couldn’t lose the knife; it was all she had. Also – Pete didn’t look like he could go anywhere, let alone climb a ladder.

Graeme seemed to agree. ‘Cath … you’ll have to help me get him out. Maybe we should do it here. Put him out of his misery.’

Caitlin tutted irritably. ‘Not doing it here; they’d be found too soon. Too much evidence. We’ll stick to the plan. He’s probably just faking anyway. You.’ She turned to Meredith. ‘Strip off.’