She glared at him. ‘You know that less irritating thing? It’s wearing off!’ She tried for annoyed, but failed, and he caught the smile on her face as she looked away.

‘So you think Eileen is behind last night then?’ he asked, wanting to know how convinced she was. Would she involve the police? He thought not, as she hadn’t wanted to call them last night. Probably because she knew there was nothing they could do. Someone standing outside a car at the end of a driveway was hardly a crime.

‘I don’t like that she has disappeared.’ Hannah looked right at him then, her clear green gaze steady. ‘Why would she do that unless she was up to something?’

He answered as honestly as he could. ‘I don’t know.’

Her phone buzzed, distracting her momentarily, and she frowned as she stared at the screen, putting her coffee down before hurriedly typing back.

Liam waited until she had finished, aware she was still distracted. ‘Everything okay?’

‘Yeah.’ She let that one word hang there for a moment and he thought it was all he was getting, but then she huffed a little, before picking up her cup again and taking a sip. ‘It’s Rosie. She ran off Tuesday night and I haven’t been able to get hold of her.’

‘But she’s okay?’

‘So it would seem. Apparently she’s coming over later, so I’ll find out.’ Hannah was silent for a moment. ‘There is something else that happened, that I haven’t told you about.’

Liam kept his tone neutral. ‘There is?’

He listened as she told him about Rosie, the break-in at her flat and her subsequent disappearance.

‘This isn’t new for her. She’s… sensitive and freaks easily. When she does, she often disappears, gets wasted, and tries to forget her problems.’

‘And doesn’t let you know she’s okay.’ He tried hard to keep the judgemental tone from his voice.

‘She panicked. Someone broke into her home, the one place she feels safe. And she’s convinced it was Eileen Wickham.’

‘Do you think it was Eileen who broke in?’

Hannah shrugged. ‘I don’t know. The call had to have been from her. Who else would know about the music box? And I guess it would be a coincidence someone breaking in on the same day. That woman really won’t let it drop, will she?’

He couldn’t answer that or give her the reassurance he suspected she needed, so he didn’t. ‘Have you spoken to the others who were there that summer? If Eileen is really behind what’s been happening to you and Rosie, surely she will have been tormenting them too.’