‘No, tell me. What makes more sense? That Angus returned the clothes and Anya hung them up, or your latest paranoid idea? Presumably you think that some mysterious someone broke into our house and put all the clothes back. It’s ridiculous, Emily, and you know it.’ He storms from the room leaving me standing there, open-mouthed, because he’s right. I do think that someone got those things back from the charity shop and put them back in our house. And now I know that they never found Caro’s body, the whole thing doesn’t feel as imagined as Rupert is making out.

I click on Mags’s name, praying that the call will connect. I imagine myself sitting on the threadbare, overstuffed, leaking sofa, eating custard creams and letting Mags make cup after cup of hot, sweet tea with two sugars, as I pour my heart out to her. She’ll know the right thing to say to make things better, she always does. It’s only now I’ve been away from her overbearing, suffocating brand of caring that I realize how much I miss it.

The phone beeps in my ear and cuts off without connecting. I’m debating whether to just head over to the flat – I don’t know if Mags still has my number blocked or if she hasn’t paid her bill again – when the doorbell rings and I see Sadie’s outline through the glass in the front door.

‘Darling!’ Sadie barges her way into the house, much the same as she did that first time I opened the door to her, what feels like a hundred years ago. ‘Rupert called me.’

‘He did?’ I follow her into the sitting room, where she is already sitting in the corner of the sofa that is my usual spot. ‘What did he say?’

‘He’s worried about you…’ She pauses, cocking her head to one side. ‘He’s worried about your health. Physical and mental. You do look dreadful, Emily.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ I mutter, unable to rein in the irritation that fizzes in my veins, ‘there is nothing wrong with my health, mental or physical.’ I pause. This is my chance to get Sadie to tell me everything she knows about what happened the night Caro died, before Rupert has a chance to tell her that he thinks I’m probably going mad. I realize she’s talking at me again.

‘… And Rupert can’t cope with more… mental instability. After everything he went through with Caro, he needs someone to be there for him…’

‘Yes,’ I interrupt, ‘Caro. Let’s talk about Caro. Sadie, I want you to tell me everything you remember about that night.’

‘What?’ Sadie looks taken aback. ‘Are you even listening to me?’

‘Yes, of course I am. But I need you to go over things one more time. Tell me everything that you can remember from that night.’