As she tells me the story, I grow cold. I listen, my hand over my mouth, tears filling my eyes. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Any last vestige of hope I might have had is gone. Anna is sobbing wildly. I suppose she wants my pity, but this is a mess of her own making, because of her vanity, her grudge-bearing, her own guilt.

‘Did he suffer?’ It sounds such a pointless thing to ask, because what’s she going to say? Yes, it hurt like hell, of course he bloody suffered, you idiot.

‘I don’t know,’ she sobs. ‘He just slumped. I think it was instant.’

I bite my bottom lip to keep from crying. ‘So it was Douglas who got rid of his body?’ My ribcage feels so tight I can barely breathe.

Anna tugs her cuff over the ball of her palm then uses it to dry her tears and wipe her nose. ‘Yes. I drew him a map of the grounds and woods. I thought I knew that place like the back of my hand. I must have made a mistake because the bag wasn’t where I expected it to be.’ She frowns, as if she still can’t believe this to be true. ‘I was agitated and panicking, and it’d been so long since I’d been there.’

I let her cry while I fetch a box of tissues. ‘We’re going to the police station.’

She blows her nose. ‘But what about Lottie?’

That pulls me up short. After what I’ve just heard, I’m not sure I want Douglas in sole charge. ‘No, you’re right. You’ll have to go on your own. Promise me you will.’

She nods, but she looks bereft, like I’ve abandoned her. She needs ordering around like a child, guiding to where she’s left her bag hanging over the back of a kitchen chair. She’s fighting with the zipper of her coat and I’m about to lose patience and help her, when the doorbell rings again.

‘Jesus,’ I say, grabbing Toffee and lifting him into my arms. ‘This place is like Clapham Junction.’

Anna’s eyes are huge. ‘Don’t answer it.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ I leave her in the kitchen and go to the door, hoping it’s Marsh saving us a trip, but it turns out to be Douglas.

‘I thought we were meeting at the school,’ I say. Fear tightens my ribcage. I’m sure my voice will give me away. This is the man who colluded with Anna in the killing and disposal of my boyfriend.

Toffee whines and scrabbles at me so I let him go and he scampers back into the kitchen.

Douglas walks past me, without waiting for an invitation, saying over his shoulder, ‘I was early. We can walk there together.’