‘No! Shit, no. Brian will hear me. I can’t involve him in all this. And anyway, I’ve got a neighbour who is literally up all night, sitting at his front window. He would see the car and, not recognising it, would most definitely report it to the police. He’s done it before. We can’t chance that.’

‘Okay. Well, could there already be a shovel at the graveside? If Tiff’s grave has been dug, they might’ve left tools?’

‘No, they used a mini-digger thing. I saw it when I walked through the other day.’ Louisa stared out of the car window, wishing she were anywhere but sitting there with Oliver’s wife – her dead husband squashed up in the boot. They’d had to sit for the last twenty minutes recovering from the task of dragging Oliver’s body down the pathway. Louisa’s arms shook, the ache from the weight and awkwardness of their load tracking up into her shoulders. She’d be stiff in the morning. ‘Tiff has tools in her garage,’ she said, her mind suddenly alert again.

‘Can you get into it?’

‘I know the combination to the key safe by the front door, and you can access the garage from inside her house – there’s a connecting door.’

‘Great. We can take some of her clothes, too. You can’t put your coat back on now, and we’ll need fresh clothes after all this.’ Melissa looked down at herself – her jumper and jeans were caked in mud from the numerous times they’d stumbled over with the body.

‘No. That’s just … weird. Wrong.’

‘Really? I think we’ve gone beyond that already.’

‘Fine. I bagged everything up the other day. If it’s still there, and no one has taken it to charity, we should be able to find a change of clothes.’

The engine rumbled into life, and Melissa slowly drove in the direction of Tiff’s. The weight of Oliver in the boot had lowered the rear of the car, and as it bumped over the stony ground leaving the common, the exhaust grated on the ground. If they managed to get the car to Tiff’s and then to the church, without someone clocking them, it would be a miracle.

Louisa had been right about Tiff having tools in the garage. They took a bucket shovel and a spade, then got a change of clothes and some trainers for each of them. They made two trips to the car before driving along the road to the church.