Carefully I sift through the jewellery, pulling out gold chains and larger earrings, laying them gently on the dressing table as I search for the tiny item I’m looking for. Finally, I find it, tucked into the corner of the velvet lining, and I pull it out and hold it up to the light. A single, solitary diamond earring, .31 carat, by the looks of things and remarkably similar to ones that I have eyed on the Tiffany website many times before. Large enough to be expensive. Large enough that you wouldn’t be so careless as to just lose one.

I slide to the floor and sweep my arm under the dressing table – that’s where I dropped it before, so it stands to reason that the other would be somewhere near by – but there’s nothing under there but dust. I check all around, sweeping my arm under the wardrobe, and under the bed but there is no sign of a matching earring.

I hear Rupert’s words as he sits across the table from me yesterday – ‘She was wearing a pair of diamond earrings that I bought her for our wedding day’ – and Sadie telling me that on the night she disappeared, Caro was wearing a ruffled red gown and diamond earrings. My stomach rolls as I finally start to accept the implications of what finding this earring might mean.

Maybe she had other pairs? I return to the jewellery box and rummage through it closely, and although there are plenty of earrings, none of them are diamonds. Amanda will know. I head downstairs, needing coffee and something to settle my roiling stomach, and as I wait for the kettle to boil, I dial Amanda’s number. It’s not as if I can call Sadie, not after yesterday.

‘Hello?’ She sounds blurry, groggy, and I glance at the clock, realizing it’s barely eight o’clock.

‘Amanda? I’m so sorry to wake you, it’s Emily.’

‘Emily? It’s early… sorry, I was awake half the night; this baby is going to be a gymnast, I think.’ She pauses for a moment and sounds as though she is stifling a yawn. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I think so.’ I dump water into a mug with coffee granules and give it a half-hearted stir before I move to the kitchen table. My legs feel wobbly, and I am dizzy and nauseous, but I am not sure if it’s from lack of sleep or fear of having my thoughts confirmed. ‘Listen, I wanted to ask you about the night Caro disappeared.’

‘What about it?’ A cautious note creeps into her tone and I hear a slight rustling, as though Amanda is propping herself up in bed.

‘Sadie said Caro was excited about the party, but then she and Rupert had an argument and Caro stormed out.’