‘No, my baby was put up for adoption. I never saw him.’ Jodie felt a lump in her throat. Those words never got easier to say.

Doyle put the shoes back in the box and tucked the tissue paper neatly around them. ‘Okay, so you believe Hill has started this stalking because he finally managed to get his name removed from the register of sex offenders.’

Jodie wanted to scream that it was blindingly obvious that was the way it went, but she guessed there was no point in taking her stress and misery out on the officer who was simply doing his job. ‘Yes, it seems to make sense. Nobody else knew about the shoes.’

‘Nobody? Are you sure?’ Doyle folded his arms. ‘People often think they’ve kept a secret but when they think about it, they’ve told one or two people… people who may have then gone on to tell one or two more.’

That night she’d had too much to drink and told Rivka and her other nursing friends… had she mentioned the shoes then or told Rivka about them later? She honestly couldn’t remember.

‘I can see from your expression that I’m right,’ Doyle said with a smugness that made her want to hit him.

‘I may have told a couple of girlfriends, years ago, but they’d never do something like this. Why would they?’

‘People don’t always need a reason to cause trouble. Could be any manner of things… jealousy, spite, you name it.’ Doyle sat on one of the kitchen chairs. ‘Have you told anybody more recently?’

‘It’s not the kind of thing you simply drop into conversation,’ she said, taking the chair opposite.

‘And you can’t think of anyone who’d want to wish you ill?’

Flynn. Maybe he would now after being dumped so unceremoniously. But he didn’t know about her past. ‘Oh no,’ she blurted out as a thought struck her. ‘There is someone, I suppose he might have snooped and found the shoes.’ The first night Flynn had stayed over. She’d gone downstairs early, perhaps he’d made the most of her absence and had a look around – learned her secrets. The box where she kept the baby shoes Victor had given her, she distinctly remembered being surprised later that same morning to find it so easily accessible.

‘I dumped him because I discovered he’d been lying to me,’ she explained.

Doyle frowned. ‘Okay, how long have you known this guy?’

‘Two weeks, on Tuesday.’

‘And the first shoes arrived when?’

‘Last Friday.’

‘A little over a week after you met this man?’

Jodie gulped and nodded.

‘And when was it you dumped him?’