‘It’s that bloody Liam Quinn. Don’t think I haven’t noticed all of this has started happening since he showed up. You need to tell him to get lost.’

‘You can’t blame Liam for this. He hasn’t done anything wrong.’

‘Of course he has. He’s dredging up our past and is making everything worse. And you keep defending him. How do we know he’s not in cahoots with Mrs W? Don’t you think it all seems rather odd that he shows up saying he is writing a book about her and now all these things are happening?’

‘I promise you, he’s not—’

Hannah froze. The noise sounded like a stone hitting one of the back windows.

‘Hannah? What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing. I just heard something outside.’

‘Where are you? Are you at home?’

‘No, I’m at a client’s house.’

‘Are you there alone?’

‘Yes.’

‘So what made a noise?’

‘I’m sure it’s nothing. Just you making me paranoid.’

Not quite the truth, but Rosie didn’t need to know that. It was probably just one of the cats had knocked something. Still, Hannah crept out into the hall and peeked into each of the rooms.

‘Look, I need to sort Tango and Cash. I’ll give you a call a bit later.’

‘You’re sure everything is okay?’

Hannah was in the living room now, looking over the back garden. She couldn’t see anyone outside. Maybe a bird had flown into the window. ‘Everything is fine.’

She ended the call, taking another look outside. Then, convinced she had overreacted, she sorted food and water for Tango and Cash before going in search of them, wanting to give them both some affection and a few treats. In her instructions, Lexi had explained they might be upstairs under one of the beds, and after finding downstairs empty, that’s where Hannah headed.

Tango was sprawled across the landing at the top of the stairs, rolling over to expose his big ginger belly as Hannah approached, while sleek black Cash with his wide worried eyes watched her cautiously from under the bed in the spare room.

She spent some time making a fuss of Tango, while working on Cash, trying to lure him out with a combination of sweet talk and treat temptation. It was likely the latter that won, but he at least let her coax him while he enjoyed the biscuits.

Another loud bang had Cash running back to his hideout and even Tango flinched.

Rolling onto her knees, Hannah crawled across to the window and tried to discreetly peer out.

Her heart caught when she spotted the flicker of movement down below.