ICE9: I did. I do. But we could never work. You’re too young and we’re too different.

Jackdaw44: Fuck YOUNG. You didn’t complain about how young I am when my dick was in your arse.

Jackdaw44: I fucking LOVE YOU.

Jackdaw44: That’s it? I tell you I love you and you ignore me???

ICE9: I’m not ignoring you. I just don’t know what to say.

Jackdaw44: You could start by telling me that you love me too.

ICE9: You know I can’t do that.

Jackdaw44: Why? Because you love someone else? People in love don’t cheat!

ICE9: You’re angry and you’ve got good reason to be and I’m sorry.

Jackdaw44: Meet me in the park at 8 tonight.

ICE9: I can’t.

Jackdaw44: Please. You owe me that much. I just want to see you again. I need to say goodbye properly.

ICE9: I don’t know.

Jackdaw44: I love you. Just let me say goodbye.

ICE9: OK. Tonight. But I can’t stay long.

Chapter 46

A sex offender? My husband is a sex offender and a cheat? What else don’t I know about him?

I sit alone in the kitchen watching the back door. Six hours have passed since I walked out of the Ostrich, leaving Stephen with his head in his hands.

The first thing I did when I got home was to go through the pockets of all Mark’s jackets and coats. Then I searched through his chest of drawers. I had no idea what I was looking for – a charge sheet, a love note from Edie Christian, a hotel receipt, a cinema ticket, a petrol receipt – something, anything, to explain what Stephen had told me. I found nothing incriminating. I called Billy’s school but then put the phone down again when the receptionist answered. I did the same with DS Forbes’s number.

I need to talk to my husband, not anyone else. I need to ask him face to face if what Stephen said is true. I’ll know if he’s lying. I can normally tell by the small half-smile that flickers at the edges of his lips.

After Lloyd left her Liz read up on the signs that someone is lying. Apparently all that stuff about people looking up and to the left is wrong. You can’t tell whether someone is lying by filling out a check sheet of facial expressions; you look for differences from the way they normally behave. That’s why I believed Mark when he said he didn’t know why Billy had defaced the photos and—