‘Why? I need to keep up with what the police are doing, and anyway it’s fun hearing about what a mess my father’s in.’

His threats were useless. Every one he made countered by her promise that Luke would die if he didn’t keep quiet. He believed her. Even worse, she might hurt Clara. He was trapped.

In desperation, he’d followed Hannah from her meeting with Clara and taken the photograph of her. It was the only thing he could think of to hold as currency over her, a way of warning her, if he needed to, that he could go to the Lawsons and the police whenever he wanted. She’d looked up at the last moment and seen him. He’d run, then, jumping on to a train just before it left the station. Back at his flat he’d downloaded the photograph to his laptop for safekeeping, then dropped it in to Mehmet in the kebab shop below. ‘Can you hold on to this for me?’ he’d asked.

‘Not a problem, my friend.’

He had been right to fear that Hannah would come looking for it, and though she’d taken his camera with the photo on it, she hadn’t, of course, been able to find its copy on the laptop. He knew he had to tell Clara the truth, yet every time he opened his mouth, he couldn’t find the words, terrified that she would hate him for what he’d done. It had been a desperate, spur-of-the-moment decision to show her and Tom the picture, leading them to finally work out the truth without him having to implicate himself.

But it would never be over, he knew that now. He had expected Hannah to expose him during her trial, had been terrified that she would reveal the part he’d played in it all. But to his surprise she’d kept quiet. For weeks hope had flickered in his heart. It looked, for a time, as though he might get away with it. But then the phone calls had started. She seemed to have become even crazier while on remand, more vengeful and hate-fuelled than ever, and he realized now why she hadn’t implicated him in court: it was to have something to hold over him. She told him she’d thought of new ways to punish the Lawsons, and that it was down to him to help her. ‘You know what’ll happen if you don’t,’ she’d said, moments before he’d cut her off. ‘I’ll make sure Clara knows you were in on it from the start.’