How many of those were real? Or was Mark shacked up in a hotel with Edie Christian, the fact that he was married and a father of two locked up in a box in his head and filed away?

My hands shake as I place the calendar and the photo album on the kitchen table.

It’s nearly five o’clock. The knife is still stashed in the tote bag under the passenger seat in my car. I can’t go to the police until I’ve found out the truth. God knows what time Mark will get home from work but I’m not going anywhere until he does.

Chapter 47

‘Coo-ee! Just me! Claire, are you home? What are you doing sitting in the dark?’

Liz reaches around the door and flicks the light switch. I blink as the kitchen fills with fluorescent light.

‘Claire?’ She crosses the kitchen and pulls out the chair opposite me. ‘Are you okay? I saw your car in the drive. You didn’t tell me you were coming back today.’

I sent Liz a text from Mum and Dad’s the day after my session with Sonia. I told her that things were stressful at home and that I needed a few days’ peace and quiet. She responded immediately, asking if I needed to talk. I said no, but that I’d ring her in a couple of days.

‘I didn’t know I was coming back today either,’ I say.

I want to tell her everything. I want to let every last worry and fear spill out but I haven’t got the energy. I need to save what little I have left for my conversation with Mark.

‘Liz,’ I say instead, ‘did Caleb ever mention anything to you about Billy being in love with someone? Maybe Jake told him—’

I’m interrupted by the sound of the back door opening.

‘Claire!’ Kira says. ‘You’re back.’

‘For now.’ I keep the smile fixed on my face. ‘How’s college? It must be your exhibition soon.’

‘Yeah.’ She lowers the art folder she’s carrying to the floor and wiggles the fingers of her left hand.

‘Can we come and see it?’ Liz asks. ‘Is there any nudity? I can’t remember the last time I saw a naked man.’

The base of Kira’s throat turns red as Liz laughs raucously. ‘No, not really,’ she says.

‘So what’s it about then?’

Kira’s tongue moves back and forward in her mouth as she clacks her piercing against her teeth. ‘Tattoos.’

Tattoos? Jake told me Kira wouldn’t let him go to her exhibition because it was too personal. What’s so personal about photos of tattoos?

‘Hey, Kira!’ Liz lifts her top and flashes her tummy. ‘You could have taken a photo of my dolphin. Although I’m such a fat fucker now it looks more like a whale.’

‘Do you regret it?’ Kira asks as she peers at it.