Too weak to walk, she slid to the floor and crawled to the living room to find her phone. She could have dialled 999, but she didn’t, she pressed the speed dial for DI Fanshawe. To her relief, it was answered immediately. Words? She couldn’t find any. Dropping the phone into her lap, she sobbed. She could hear the tinny sound of the detective’s voice fading into the distance as she did what she’d wanted to do for several minutes and passed out.

When she came to, she was lying on a gurney in an ambulance. Twisting her head around, she saw Fanshawe sitting on the seat beside her. ‘I killed him,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘But you’ll be okay. We’ll need to go through due process but it’s a clear case of self-defence, Mrs Chatwell. There won’t be any case to answer.’ He sat forward and patted her arm reassuringly. ‘A clear case, Molly. Those capsules that Charlie Forster wanted you to take, they were in fact the ones the hospital gave you, but they’d been opened, emptied and refilled with a very pure grade of heroin. One capsule would probably have killed you, two would certainly have done.’

Molly gulped. ‘Charlie wanted to make certain I died, didn’t he?’

Fanshawe shook his head. ‘Not Forster, Molly. I’d asked for the capsules to be tested as a matter of priority. When I got the results, I immediately spoke to him and he was adamant that he had nothing to do with it.’ Fanshawe patted her arm again, and this time left his hand resting on it. ‘It wasn’t only the two capsules Forster gave you that had been doctored, Molly, it was all of them. They’ve found partial fingerprints on the capsules; I’m guessing we’ll find they’re a match to your husband. That’s why I’m certain it’ll be a clear-cut case of self-defence. It looks like he has been trying to kill you since you came back from the hospital, he probably hoped you’d take the painkillers at least once, and once would have been enough.’

She didn’t have to ask why. There was only one reason, the same reason Charlie had. Both men had wanted to kill her for the money. She remembered Jack’s anger. ‘That was why he went ballistic when I told him you’d taken them,’ she said, shutting her eyes. ‘And of course, it was why he had to get away.’