Oliver was standing on her doorstep red-faced and panting, his arm on the wall appearing to be the only thing holding him steady.

‘Shit,’ Louisa said.

It was bad news. They’d found Melissa and she was dead. That had to be it; the look on Oliver’s face said it all. The questions she’d had clouding her head about why he’d been spying on their house, what he’d been doing at Tiff’s, left her – sheer panic replacing them. ‘Come in.’ She stepped aside. It’d been her first reaction, despite telling herself she wouldn’t let him in again. If the news was terrible, she couldn’t very well leave him standing on the doorstep. He swept past her but stayed in the hallway, pacing it like a caged wild animal.

‘Oliver, speak to me. What’s happened?’

He pulled his fingers through his thick hair, and then stood with both hands interlocked on his head. Louisa’s pulse banged. She tasted the tension. Her fear.

Blood.

A body on the ground.

Screaming.

Oliver pacing.

Louisa shook her head. That’d been the first time she’d seen Oliver in her visions. He’d been like he was right now, hands on his head, pacing.

She tried to clear her mind – concentrate on the here and now, not on something that may or may not have happened before. She reached for Oliver, putting her hands on his shoulders.

‘Oliver, look at me. Have they found her?’

She wasn’t sure she was ready for the answer.

‘No. Not yet.’

Louisa’s breath escaped in a rush. No news was good news. Or, at least, no news meant that she hadn’t turned up dead at least.

‘So, what then? Why are you so distraught?’

Oliver suddenly grabbed her, holding her tight against his torso. She felt his breath against her hair. The warmth from him radiated across her chest. She should pull away. But it felt comforting. Strangely, it felt right.

‘They think I’m lying. They don’t believe that I took Melissa with me to your party.’ His voice was quiet, muffled in her neck. But she understood his words. Understood what the visit from DS Mack and DI Wade had been for this morning.

‘Have they said this, specifically? Or is it an assumption?’

‘They practically told me, just an hour ago. Said there’s no evidence of Melissa being at Court Farm on that Friday evening. What else can I take from that?’

‘But they haven’t arrested you, so they have nothing to prove that she wasn’t there either. They haven’t caught you out in a lie.’

Oliver let his arms drop from around her and stepped back. ‘That’s because I’m not lying.’ His voice was clipped, his face stern.

‘I wasn’t suggesting you were,’ she said quietly.

‘But we both know we’re capable. Of lying, I mean.’