He doesn’t think I murdered Felix. But murder is such an unforgiving word. It doesn’t leave room for in the heat of the moment or it was an accident. Tom may not believe I murdered Felix, but he thinks I might have killed him. He wonders if I lashed out in fury or in a misguided attempt to protect Stacey. But would he really have my back if he found out I’d gone over to the Glass House with malice aforethought and killed Felix in cold blood? Would I even want him to? Someone has to raise our children with some semblance of a moral compass, however lost our son already seems to be.

I call Stacey as I drive to the hospital, but her phone goes straight to voicemail, so I leave an urgent message for her to call me back as soon as she can.

Once I get to work, I’m too busy making my rounds to think about anything else. My transplant patient is doing well, as is Harper, who is already sitting up in bed and demanding to be allowed to upload a vlog from her hospital room.

‘We don’t need the security headache,’ I tell her, taking her phone away. ‘We’ve already got members of your bloody Kyper Nation trying to sneak into the hospital through the staff car park.’

‘Really?’ Harper says, delighted.

‘Behave yourself, and I’ll give your phone back to you tomorrow on condition you don’t mention the hospital by name,’ I say.

She doesn’t remember anything about the accident: the police have already interviewed her, two uniformed beat coppers who are ‘optimistic’ the hit-and-run culprit will be caught. By which I take it the case has already been filed in a folder labelled when hell freezes over.

I tell her to stop using her vlog to agitate against Felix and Copper Beech. ‘The man is officially missing,’ I say. ‘The police think something may have happened to him. You pursuing a vendetta against him: it’s not a good look.’

‘You just don’t want me making waves for Stacey,’ Harper says.

Once again, I’m surprised by her perceptiveness. This woman is so much smarter than she looks.

By the end of the day I’ve left Stacey four messages.

She doesn’t return a single one of my calls.

chapter 45

millie