My heart sank. He was right. Eddie had contacted them and updated the records for Patrick’s pension; meagre as it was, I needed the small amount of money it would bring in. Conway must have got into the system. I stepped away from him, sickened by the touch of his hand on my skin. ‘Well, you found me. What do you want?’

‘What do I want? Let’s see. The money your husband borrowed from me?’

‘You’ve no proof of that.’ I took off my coat and boots, trying to show that this was my place, my home. He had no business being here.

‘Don’t I?’ He came closer again. A man with no concept of physical space, and the idea that he had access to anaesthesia made me want to vomit. ‘We can sort this out nicely. All you have to do is pay me and I’ll disappear.’

‘Why would I do that? You can’t do anything to us now. Patrick is dead. He’s dead and there’s not much more I care to lose.’

‘What if I tell Missy across the road who you are?’

I blinked. I hadn’t even imagined he knew about Suzi.

‘That Paddy’s baby in her belly, is it?’ Another hit for him. He knew much more than I could have thought. Perhaps Patrick had told him? I imagined him speaking tenderly of Suzi, and my heart spasmed.

‘Of course not. Look, blackmail is a crime. If you leave now I won’t tell the police.’

He laughed. ‘You, go to the police? Tell ’em who you really are? I don’t think so, Nora.’

I paused for a moment, working out my next move like a chess player. ‘How much did he owe you?’

‘Twenty k.’ I highly doubted it would be that much, even if he had borrowed some. But Conway had me at a disadvantage. One word to Suzi about who I was and she’d bolt, taking her baby with her. Patrick’s baby.

‘You’ll have to give me time to get it,’ I said, as calmly as I could. ‘Patrick left me almost nothing, you know.’

‘Cleared you out, I hear. But there must be some. After your family died in that fire, so sad, poor little Eleanor! What a coincidence, she’s alive and safe and the rest are – poof! And your swanky piano career. There must be cash.’

Ellie. Ellie, I’m scared! A white face at a window.

I had to stay calm. He couldn’t know about that. No one did. ‘He spent it all,’ I said, the truth making me savage. ‘He ruined me, James. I’m sorry if he did the same to you, but what can I do about it? The money is gone. And he’s dead, he hit a tree and died, so I can hardly make him give it back.’