‘No,’ I protest. ‘That is not what this is about. She has an agenda. She’s the one who was stalking Nick, not me.’

‘Right. I think that’s quite enough,’ Harriet interrupts. ‘It’s patently obvious that this is a fishing trip. Without a body, you can’t prove definitively that my client’s partner was murdered. If you have no evidence with which to charge Ms Trelawney, we’ll be going.’

She drops her pad into her briefcase and slides her pen into the inside pocket of her jacket, then stands up.

Marsh sighs and pushes his chair back.

I lean against the wall of the police station while Harriet sends a text. Then she drops her phone in her bag and smiles.

‘Don’t worry, Grace,’ she says. ‘They’re clutching at straws. There is very little they can achieve without a body, frankly, and bar finding Nick’s blood in the boot of the car and a blunt object with your fingerprints on it, I can’t see what this achieves, apart from demonstrating to the taxpayers that they are actually doing something.’

‘They have to look closer at Anna.’

‘They will. They should be able to question her soon. If there is a link between the attack on her and Nick’s disappearance, they’ll find it.’

‘Let’s hope so,’ I say, sincerely. ‘I don’t know how much more of this I can take.’

She pats my arm lightly. ‘You’ll be OK. You’re tougher than you think.’

ANNA

Tuesday, 15 May 2018

ANNA CLIMBED OUT OF THE UBER AND CROSSED THE pavement to her front door, grabbing at the wall to steady herself. She half expected to find the police waiting for her, but there was no one there. She wobbled as she struggled to find her keys.

The policeman who had stood guard outside her ward had left his post, so she had quietly dressed amid the snores and rustlings of her fellow patients and left too. At four o’clock it had been quiet. The nurse on Reception had looked up from her phone and questioned her, but Anna kept walking, shoving through the swing doors and running down the stairs. At one point a wave of dizziness left her slumped against the wall, but she made herself keep going, listening for steps ringing out behind her, doors slamming, alarms sounding. But there was nothing. It was a hospital, not a prison. What could anyone do? She was a free agent.

Douglas was waiting for her as he’d promised to be when she’d texted him earlier, but she still got a fright when she opened her door and found him standing in the dark. He must have been listening for the car. She fell into his arms. He pushed the door shut with his free hand and took her bag from her.

‘Have you said anything to the police yet?’ he asked.