The words I’ve spent most of the afternoon rehearsing evaporate as I turn to face him. ‘You’re a fucking liar, Andrew. It wasn’t James you were meeting in the pub the other night. It was your lover. Don’t try to lie your way out of this. I’ve worked it out. While James’s life has been going down the pan, you’ve been fucking his wife.’

Chapter Twenty-Four

Elise

‘Me and Stephanie? You really are insane.’ Andrew’s voice is patronising. ‘You need to go back to the specialist, Elise. Maybe there’s something he can give you.’

I recognise the first warning sign. Usually it gives way to anger, and if I don’t back down now, he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I do. But I’m not backing down when it’s so clearly Andrew who’s in the wrong here. ‘She called the landline. Your lovers usually do, Andrew. Did you know that? Oh, of course you do,’ I say sarcastically. ‘Silly Elise. It’s you who puts them up to it, isn’t it? Anyway, this time I wrote the number down, and this afternoon I called it.’ It takes all my strength to hold his gaze. I won’t let him get to me. ‘As you’d expect, it went to voicemail.’

A woman’s voice. ‘Please leave a message.’ Four words, but it’s all you need when it’s a voice you know.

It’s bad enough to put a face to the mystery woman Andrew’s been screwing. But to know that I tried to befriend her, to know that she’s now dead after crashing her car … With each passing second, more is becoming clear in my brain. Hollie’s comings and goings here; her agitation, hardly surprising given her father’s problems, while her stepmother was shagging Andrew. ‘But it got complicated, didn’t it, because Hollie found out.’

Poor Hollie, carrying the weight of it alone.

Instead of blustering his way out of it, he shakes his head. ‘This is ridiculous, Elise. Yes, I’ve been seeing someone. It isn’t a secret. Hardly surprising when you’re so cold towards me.’

Andrew’s done this before, twisting the truth, making his behaviour my responsibility. Even so, his audacity is breath-taking. ‘I’m not in the habit of sleeping with men who shag around,’ I say curtly. ‘And we’re talking about Stephanie, not me. Maybe it was Hollie who slashed your tyres. Maybe she’d found out.’ I shake my head. ‘God knows you deserved it.’ He’d better hope the police don’t make the connection. It would make him a suspect in Hollie’s murder.

Andrew’s silent for a moment. ‘That girl had problems. Hardly surprising given her background.’

I stare at him. It’s a staggering example of the way Andrew thinks. ‘How can you say that, Andrew?’