I wince as I recall Edward Carter-Vaughan asking me for a contact address. I knew I’d have to give him a valid one, despite the fake name, but I had thought it was just a formality. No one was going to follow up this appointment or make use of Georgie’s address. But then, I had no idea what was about to happen in Geoffrey’s house and that the police would come looking for me.

‘You are then shown emerging on to Hampstead High Street via the side street that leads to Holly Maze House,’ continues Bains, his eyes fixed on me. ‘You are clearly in a state of agitation and distress.’

I stare at the table where the iPad had been, watching the space as though the film is still playing. And if it was, it would show me running to the tube, terror and panic burning inside me, tears running down my face.

‘The estate agent who dealt with you, Edward Carter-Vaughan, tells us that he remembered you because you were making rather a lot of fuss about viewing the house.’

Bains’s words rip through me as I sit staring at the empty space.

‘Mr Carter-Vaughan says that you told him, and I quote, “It’s rather important I see it as soon as I can. It’s a matter of urgency.”’

I flinch as I recall myself saying that to the bemused young man. But it was true. It was a matter of urgency that I saw Holly Maze House.

‘It really is in your best interests to answer these questions, Miss Adams,’ says Bains, his voice softening somewhat. ‘The evidence is right here in front of us. You were there in the offices of Price Burrows Estate Agency at 1 p.m. on the 11th of August, using a false name, and you were there on Hampstead High Street one hour and fourteen minutes later. Weren’t you?’

I look up at him. His face is getting more flushed. I’m exasperating him.

‘Miss Adams, your refusal to cooperate and to answer these very simple questions is rather concerning,’ he says, his eyes bulging now. ‘Particularly as we have clear evidence of your being in the vicinity of Holly Maze House in the hours surrounding Geoffrey Rivers’s murder. Miss Adams, I shall lay this out for you in basic terms. According to the pathologist, Geoffrey Rivers died some time between 1 p.m., when he spoke on the phone to Edward Carter-Vaughan, and 3 p.m., when Mr Rivers’s window cleaner spotted his body through the window.’

His voice is getting louder and louder. It’s scaring me. I want him to stop.