Mackey spread his hands at us: There you go. Conway said, ‘We’re not married to the blackmail motive. There’s plenty of other possibilities.’

She left it till Holly rolled her eyes. ‘Like what?’

‘You told Detective Moran that when you found out what was wrong with Selena, you just stuck your head in the sand and hoped it’d go away. That rings my bullshit alarm. I don’t see you being that much of a wimp. Are you a wimp, yeah?’

‘No. I just didn’t know what to do. Sorry I’m not some kind of genius.’

I’d got to Holly before, from this angle; Conway was banking on getting to her again. Mackey was paying attention.

‘Like you just said, though, you’re not some kind of idiot, either. You wouldn’t freeze up just because you had to deal with something all by yourself. You’re not a baby. Are you?’ It was working. Holly had her arms folded, starting to knot into a furious ball. ‘I think you went to Selena, told her you knew about Chris. I think she told you she was planning on getting back with him. And I think you went, Fuck no. Made a chance to get hold of Selena’s phone, texted Chris to meet up. Probably you just wanted him to leave Selena alone, did you?’

Holly had her face turned away from Conway, staring out the window.

‘How’d you try to convince him? You said before, Chris wasn’t happy that he was never going to get anywhere with you. Did you offer him a swap: leave Selena alone, I’ll make up for it?’

That almost lifted her out of the chair. ‘I’d rather have my skin peeled off than do anything with Chris. Jesus!’

Nothing from Mackey. Holly hadn’t even clocked him on that, and she would have, if she’d hooked up with Chris: talking about your sex life in front of Daddy, that had to get some reaction. She was telling the truth: she’d never touched Chris.

Conway said, ‘Then how’d you go at him?’

Holly bit down on her lip, angry at herself: she’d been got. Turned her face away again, started the ignoring from scratch.

‘Whatever you tried, you gave it a few shots, it didn’t work. Finally you made one more appointment with him. For the sixteenth of May.’

Holly biting her lip harder, stop herself answering. Mackey didn’t move, but he was pulled like a crossbow on the edge of it.

‘This time you weren’t planning on any persuading. You got out early, you got your weapon ready, and when Chris showed up—’