‘DI Snyder will know we’re lying and he’ll wonder why. Maybe he’ll think it’s because one of us killed Ailsa.’

‘If one of us had, why would we be trying to get Finn off the hook for it?’ Josh demanded.

Greg shook his head. Now they were in the region of bluff and double bluff, he was at a loss.

‘Lies got us where we are now,’ he said. ‘I’m not lying again.’

‘So you’ll let them charge Finn when we both know he didn’t do it?’

‘Do we?’ Greg said. ‘Are you sure I didn’t do it? Am I sure you didn’t?’ He paused, waiting for the next angry retort, which didn’t happen.

‘Look, I’ll go down and speak to Caroline, if she’ll let me,’ he said. ‘See if she knows any more about it. Maybe she’s Finn’s alibi for the night Ailsa disappeared.’

‘You mean when she said she was yours?’ Josh didn’t sound convinced.

‘Let me try.’

‘You have until tomorrow, then I go and give them my statement, where I tell them you were there hiding in the bushes when we smashed up the hot tub. Maybe’ – he thought for a moment – ‘maybe you knew we were up to something and were there to guard the grave.’

Greg tried not to respond to that semi-accusation. It wouldn’t get them anywhere if he did.

‘I’ll go see Caroline now.’

Josh nodded, his face still full of anger.

Greg waited until the quad bike took off down the hill before he went in to tell Joanne that Finn had been arrested again and he needed to speak to Caroline about that.

Joanne

When Greg left for the village to speak to Caroline, she’d immediately headed for the toilet. The morning sickness that had heralded the pregnancy had now moved to become any time of the day. Like now.

Knowing it was impossible to be silent when it happened, she had welcomed Greg’s departure.

Now that it was over, and whatever she’d eaten for breakfast was no longer in her stomach, she lowered the toilet lid and splashed her face with cold water. She should, she knew, have contacted a doctor by now and got checked out. But why do that if her intention was to abort the pregnancy anyway? The truth was she had no idea what her intention was any more.

She didn’t even know why she’d blurted out about a prenatal DNA test to discover who the father was. She’d read about it when she’d been researching the abortion route, and had thought how wonderful it would be to discover that the baby wasn’t Richard’s.

Going through to the bedroom, she lay down on the bed and, remembering how happy Greg had looked when she’d suggested the test, she wanted to burst out crying.