Clare fiddled with her wedding ring. It was the only piece of jewellery of any worth that she possessed. She’d sold all of the rest, to help finance the deposit for the house. Clare shook her head. ‘No. No jewellery.’

‘Have you got anyone who could stay with you tonight?’

Clare looked up, startled. ‘Why, do you think they’ll come back?’

The policewoman shook her head. ‘No, that’s highly unlikely. It’s just that it can be a bit of a shock having someone break into your house and go through your personal possessions. Sometimes it takes a while to sink in.’

Clare glanced at her watch. It was nearly one in the morning. The nearest person was David. And there was no way she was going to ask him to come over at this time of night. Besides, he might have Sally with him. And Sally was the last person she wanted to see right now. ‘I’ll be fine, honestly. I’d rather just get on with clearing this place up.’

The police woman nodded and closed her notebook. ‘OK. If you’re sure. The team should be through next door soon and then we’ll be out of your hair.’

‘What do you think the chances are of catching whoever did this?’

‘Honestly?’ Clare nodded. ‘Without a better description and with no CCTV down this street, I’d say slim to zero. Unless we turn someone over for something else and we happen to find your missing laptop on them, we’ll probably never catch them. Nine out of ten times it’s drugs-related. Whatever they find they’ll flog for a pittance. But you never know your luck if we manage to turn up a decent set of prints. We’ll give it our best shot.’

A man with a thick shock of grey hair wearing a white Tyvek bodysuit popped his head round the bedroom door. ‘We’ve finished now, Jen.’

The policewoman stood up and turned to face Clare. ‘Right, if you’re sure you don’t want us to call anyone for you we’ll be on our way now. But promise me you’ll bolt the front door after us when we’ve gone.’

Almost literally shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted. Clare resisted the urge to smile. Instead she nodded. ‘And I’ll get a locksmith out to replace that lock first thing tomorrow morning.’

As soon as they’d gone, Clare had bolted the front door and collapsed in an exhausted heap on her bed. Maybe she was in shock, maybe she was just knackered, but either way she slept like a baby and didn’t wake until gone nine o’clock.