The body of William Hatcher, 82, was discovered at the bottom of the stairs in his terraced house in Ilford, Essex. It appeared that Mr Hatcher may have suffered a coronary episode, but Mr Hatcher’s son, Jason, 45, subsequently reported that a large sum of cash was missing from the property.

Jason Hatcher has been living abroad, and therefore was not aware that his father had a live-in carer. Mr Hatcher’s next-door neighbour, Cameron Henderson, (75) told our reporter:

‘Her name is Gemma, she’s very young, in her twenties, I’d say. Gemma wasn’t particularly friendly and I put that down to her just being shy. But I haven’t seen her since William’s death, and now this money is missing too.’

Mr Henderson added that the whole neighbourhood is in shock.

Anyone who has information regarding Gemma’s whereabouts is asked to contact Central Essex Police on…

‘It didn’t say how much money was missing, did it?’ Tommy asked.

Anna shook her head. She couldn’t look at him, at either of them. If they studied the photo closely… And yet she felt a bloom of pleasure that old Mr Henderson had thought she was only in her twenties.

She blinked the feeling away and studied the paper again. How were they even looking for her? She had covered her tracks with the goodbye card she had left. She had been so careful not to mark his face when she had killed him. She went back in time to that dim, gloomy hallway where she had sat atop his body and closed off his airways. He had been struggling, she’d been forceful. His skin was old and paper-thin. Had she left imprints of her fingers on his face?

Another horrible thought caught at her: that she had worn the very same beret pictured in the newspaper when the boat had docked in Åndalsnes, and when she had gone to Paula’s suite last night for a coffee. It was a deep, dark pink, unmistakable. Thankfully the newspaper was in black and white, but online, in the article that would be all over social media, the photo would be in colour. She had to ditch the beret and just hope against hope that Paula wouldn’t see the same article online and remember that she owned an identical hat.

But she had Paula’s phone, she remembered, so she wouldn’t be scrolling through the news on that device. And the article had referred to her as Gemma, which was also good.

‘Can’t believe how close to us this is.’ Tommy shook the paper in his hand.

Paula sat back in her chair. ‘It’s not that close,’ she said. ‘We don’t live in Ilford.’

Anna narrowed her eyes. Was that snobbery in Paula’s tone? Or was she trying to hide the fact that she was horrified that a crime had taken place in their vicinity?

‘Where are you from, Anna?’ asked Tommy.