Mac stared at her. ‘I’ve known him for years, I just … I mean, why would he …?’

The door opened at that moment and Clara started in surprise. ‘Alison!’

Her neighbour stood in the doorway, one hand still on the handle. ‘I’ve been discharged so I thought I’d come and …’ she trailed off, her eyes shifting nervously from Clara’s face to Mac’s, to the floor.

‘Are you OK? Were you hurt?’ Mac asked, breaking the surprised silence.

Alison shook her head. ‘No, not really.’

In the harsh brightness of this room she seemed even more wraith-like than ever, Clara thought, but her face, scrubbed clean now, looked far younger and prettier without its customary mask of make-up. Clara stared at her wordlessly, not knowing what to say to this woman who had saved her life, yet had always been so prickly and antagonistic towards her. ‘The police told me what you did,’ she said at last, ‘I don’t know what to say …’

Alison shrugged. ‘It was the people downstairs who found you, it was them really, not me.’

Clara nodded. ‘Still … I mean, thank you – it doesn’t seem enough somehow, but thank you.’

No one said anything for a moment or two, until Alison mumbled, ‘Well anyway …’ she moved as if to leave, and Clara and Mac exchanged a glance.

‘Wait,’ Clara said. With effort she pulled herself out of bed, wrapping her thin gown around her as she went. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ she asked.

But instead of answering, Alison blurted, the words escaping from her mouth almost involuntarily, ‘Have they found Luke? Is there any news?’

And it was the desperation, the misery in her eyes that made something click inside Clara at last. She stared at her. ‘Something happened between the two of you, didn’t it?’

Mac glanced at her in surprise, but Clara kept her eyes on Alison, who scowled, her gaze shifting away. ‘No,’ she said, ‘don’t be stupid.’

A beat or two, then, ‘Alison, I just want to know. I think something did happen, and I think that’s why you’ve always been so weird towards me.’

At this, Alison’s face changed, her chin dropping to her chest, and Clara understood now that her spiky belligerence had merely been a cover for something else, that she was far more vulnerable than she first appeared. ‘Look,’ she said gently, ‘I’m only asking you to tell me the truth. After everything that’s happened, I think I deserve that, don’t you?’ Clara waited, her gaze never leaving Alison’s face.

Finally she spoke. ‘Nothing happened,’ she muttered. ‘Not really.’

Clara nodded. ‘But you wanted it to?’

Alison shrugged.

‘How did it start?’ Clara asked.

At this, Alison burst into tears, covering her face with her hands. ‘Come and sit down,’ Clara said, leading her to a chair.