‘I’ll put money on nobody being any the wiser. If anyone suggests it’s not all your own work – if there’s even a hint of suspicion from any quarter – I’ll give you a thousand quid. There won’t be – I can promise you that. I made sure to use all your buzzwords: manfeelz, erasure of lived experience, it’s all in there. Read it. You might like it.’

‘You’re trying to use me as bait, is that it? Of course it is. Why wouldn’t you? What’s one more dead woman between misogynist friends?’

‘Make sure it’s not published until Thursday, 22 January – 9 a.m., not before – and I guarantee you’ll be safe,’ said Simon. ‘Billy will be with me by then – and won’t have any more opportunities to kill anyone. I wouldn’t put anyone’s life at risk, not even yours.’

Sellers was looking forward to leaving this room and its atmosphere of hostility behind. He didn’t know where people found the energy for so much anger. In some ways, Simon and Sondra Halliday were perfectly matched. Why couldn’t they both abandon their grudges and concentrate on having a laugh instead?

Halliday stood up and held out her right arm in the direction of the kitchen door. ‘Goodbye, tossers. Request to commandeer my Lifeworld column denied. This conversation’s over.’

Simon picked up his piece of paper and put it back in his jacket pocket. ‘Any more Billy murders happen, you’re responsible.’ He walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. A minute later there was another bang from further away: the front door.

Sellers stood up to follow him. He didn’t want to leave with the mood as grim as this. If he’d interviewed Halliday alone today, he’d probably have taken offence at her silly distortions and her wilful blindness as he had twice before, but Simon’s palpable disgust had made him feel oddly protective of her.

He didn’t know why he kept thinking of Lane Baillie. Then, suddenly, he did. He’d spoken to Lane about Sondra Halliday.

What this person needs is not blame but kindness and empathy … Perhaps she suffered a trauma and could only make herself strong enough to survive it by building a shell of hate and blame around herself.

Was Lane right? Would positive energy work? Sellers did massively fancy Sondra Halliday, which he knew would help him in what he was about to attempt.

‘I’m sorry about Waterhouse,’ he said.

‘Thank you. I still want you to leave as soon as possible.’ Halliday didn’t look at him. She was slamming shopping items into her fridge in the manner of someone launching weapons at an enemy.