The envelope wasn’t sealed. Jodie pulled out a folded sheet of writing paper and with a glance towards Rivka, unfolded it and read. It was short. Blunt. And shocking.

To whom it may concern.

I, Tasha White, do confess that on the 16th September I entered the BestLife Care Home in Gravesend and planted medication in room six in order to incriminate Jodie Armstrong. I apologise for the trouble and hurt I have caused.

Tasha White

‘Tasha?’ Jodie looked up from the letter. ‘I don’t believe it! Why would she have done such a thing?’ When Rivka remained silent, Jodie stretched a hand across, grabbed her arm and shook it. ‘Talk to me!’

Rivka lifted her head. ‘It was my fault,’ she said quietly. ‘I knew Tasha was jealous of our friendship but I hadn’t realised how often I spoke of you, and how often I mentioned what a good nurse you are, how professional, efficient and so on.’ Rivka rubbed her hands over her face. ‘She’s not a nurse so she’d no idea of the implications. She simply thought you’d get into trouble and your halo would be slightly tarnished.’

‘How?’ Jodie was having trouble taking it in. Tasha?

‘It was ridiculously easy. She pinched some tablets from my mother’s supply the last time we visited her. I had your work rota pinned to the noticeboard so she was able to choose a day you were working–’

‘And simply walked in!’

Rivka nodded. ‘She said she hung around outside until she saw a group of visitors going in and attached herself to them. Once inside, she scurried along a corridor, went into the first open door and left the tablets on a bedside locker.’

Jodie was struggling to make sense of it all. ‘They were found in a medicine pot. Where would she have got her hands on one?’

A flash of red coloured Rivka’s pale cheeks. ‘I sometimes take them home from the clinic in my uniform pocket and forget to bring them back. It was easy for her to keep one.’

Jodie had never taken to Tasha, and she’d guessed the feeling was mutual. But this! She planned it all to make Jodie look bad. ‘It’s unbelievable.’ It explained the state of her friend. ‘How did you find out?’

‘She’s been a bit irritable recently and I wondered if she was having second thoughts about us. So last night I asked her.’

‘And she confessed?’

‘Yes.’ Rivka pointed to the letter that lay on the table between them. ‘It was her idea to write that. She is terribly sorry and wants to make amends.’ She waited a beat. ‘What are you going to do?’