‘It would have been helpful – but I understand why you didn’t. You were trying to protect your mother, weren’t you? She knows everything now, Niamh.’ I pause, thinking not just of Niamh’s secrets, but the way Elise kept her potential cancer diagnosis hidden. ‘It isn’t always easy, but sometimes it’s better for everyone to be honest.’

‘Did he kill Hollie?’ Her voice is quiet.

‘We’re still not sure. Tell me …’ I pause. ‘Where did you get this?’

‘Hollie gave it to me.’ Her eyes don’t leave mine.

‘When?’

‘A week before she died. She’d only just found out. She asked me to look after it for her.’

‘Did she say where she’d found it?’

‘Her mum had this little case of letters and stuff. Hollie had read some of them, but always felt guilty about it. But then she found this one.’

I shake my head slowly. ‘For the first time, she understood why Dylan ended their relationship. She must have been beside herself.’ As I pause, I figure it out. ‘But you already knew. Before Hollie did.’

Her calm is eerie as she nods. ‘Dylan told me. He didn’t want Hollie to know that James wasn’t her father. He said she didn’t need to.’

‘But Hollie found out anyway.’ Poor Hollie. Surrounded by lies and tragedy – no wonder Stephanie described her as a tortured soul. Frowning, I go on. ‘Did she talk to your father?’

Niamh shrugs. ‘She said she was going to. She said she wanted to hurt him really badly, like he’d hurt Dylan, then she wanted to kill him, not just because of Dylan but because he’d had an affair with her mother. She never believed her mother killed herself.’

‘Did she tell you what she thought happened to her mother?’

Niamh’s narrow shoulders shrug. ‘She said she took some pills.’ She pauses. ‘Hollie thought …’

‘Oh, Niamh …’ Realising the magnitude of what she’s carried, my heart goes out to her. ‘Did Hollie think your father gave the pills to her mother?’

‘She said he was her doctor.’ As Niamh says it, I feel sickened. Andrew Buckley could have prescribed the pills, then left it to Kathryn whether she took them or not – not caring either way, because that’s the kind of man he is. ‘Do you know if Hollie told her father – James, I mean – about the letter?’

Niamh’s face is blank. ‘She was upset with him about something. But I don’t think so. Hollie couldn’t bear to see him upset.’ In the same way Niamh couldn’t bear to see her mother upset.

‘But she didn’t say what she was angry about?’ Had she found out about James’s involvement in the porn ring?

‘No.’