He smiles reluctantly. ‘For the better, I hope.’

‘You want someone to blame. That’s only natural. Look,’ I say, to forestall an argument. ‘All I want to know is what you can tell me about her personality. Why it is that when Anna meets a man, it tends to end in disaster for him, whether she’s to blame or not?’

He nods. ‘You’ve hit the nail on the head there. Anna is the type of woman who is so convinced that she can wrap men around her little finger that when something happens to contradict her view of herself, it comes as an almighty shock. She doesn’t much like women. She makes bad decisions under stress. But she’s a good mum,’ he adds, glancing at Grace. ‘She loves that little boy to bits.’

Later that evening, Tim comes home. He looks worn out.

‘What happened?’ I ask.

‘Nothing. I gave my statement, then hung around while they corroborated it. Then they let me go. Friendly bunch. Marsh, especially. Charming chap.’

‘Well, good.’

I pause, wondering whether to ask him to elaborate, then decide not to. I’m existing on two hours’ sleep and I’m bone weary. He’s here, isn’t he? Proof that he’s done nothing wrong. But still, there’s a lingering niggle. He’s suspiciously unperturbed by his experience. And he hasn’t asked me questions about Anna. Surely, if he had seduced her, he would be curious, or even worried that his past misdemeanours were catching up with him. He’d ask me leading questions.

‘Everything OK?’ he asks.

I shake myself. ‘Yes. Fine. Are you hungry?’

‘Famished. Why don’t we order something in?’ He pulls a bottle of wine out of the fridge and gets down two glasses. ‘What do you fancy?’

Over supper, he tells me all I need to know without me having to ask. There was a text from Cora. And none from Anna, but he could easily have deleted that. Even so, the man had several witnesses, people who had seen him and Toffee after he had parted company with Anna.

It’s an anti-climax. I had convinced myself that he had gone to meet Anna. It all fitted so conveniently. She confronted him about what he did to her, maybe threatened to accuse him retrospectively of rape, and he flipped. Only that’s not what happened.

I fall into bed at nine o’clock and for the first time since Nick went, I drop off immediately. In the morning, I stare at my clock, astonished to see that it’s past eight. I put on my dressing gown and come downstairs to find Tim’s suitcase in the hall. He’s dressed and ready to go. Cora needs to be close to her mother, and he’s going back to Leicestershire to support her. I allow myself one mean thought. Thank God for Granny.

NICK

Friday, 13 April 2018 Three Weeks Earlier