I put on a frown. ‘Oh, how awful. I don’t remember hearing about it.’ But would they know that wasn’t true? Would they check the searches I’d done online, see that I’d viewed news articles about the accident? ‘Was it ice? The roads don’t get gritted out here.’

‘No, it was before the cold snap. Still sunny and clear, nothing on the road that we know of.’

‘How strange. You’re still looking into it?’ Why had it taken them so long to get out here?

They exchanged a brief glance. ‘It wasn’t high priority. Cuts, you see.’

I wanted to offer an explanation – like maybe a sudden stroke or aneurysm, or something worse, shock at the news I’d just delivered you, the veiled threat I had made – but an innocent bystander wouldn’t do that, so I kept quiet.

‘You didn’t hear anything?’ the woman said.

‘Not that I can remember. When was it?’

She told me the date, as if I would ever forget it, and I made a pretence of getting my phone and going through my calendar. Would they be able to tell I’d been out of the house that day? Did the alarm system keep records of when I came and went? No, it was ages ago, no one would remember, plus Nora hadn’t moved in at that point. Of course she hadn’t. It must have been your death that drove her here, to find me. To destroy me.

I hedged my bets. ‘I can’t see anything in the diary, but I can’t remember that far back. I sometimes pop out for a walk, but I just don’t know, I’m sorry.’

They began to stir as if leaving, and my heart eased, thinking maybe this was just a routine call after all. They didn’t know anything.

‘Thank you, Mrs Thomas.’

I didn’t correct them about my name. Then, just as I was breathing again, poised to get up and see them to the door, they said something else.

‘Actually, Mrs Thomas, we noticed there was a call to the police a few weeks back, from this address.’

‘Oh?’ What the hell? A quick flash of panic ran through me. Had Nick told them something – did he know?

‘About a missing pet?’

I exhaled hard. ‘Oh, right, right, of course. Poor Poppet. I told Nick not to waste your time with that.’

‘Normally there’s not much we can do for missing dogs, but he’s right, there are gangs operating in this area, trying to steal pedigree animals. Have you noticed anything strange, anyone watching the house?’ I hadn’t even thought of that. It would be ridiculous if, after all this, Poppet’s disappearance was the only real crime going on here. If the strange happenings that had so spooked me had nothing to do with you and me at all.