‘I’ve been talking to this guy online,’ Morgan said, picking at a thread in the duvet cover that had come loose. ‘He’s called Taz. We’ve been friends for a while.’

‘Go on,’ Naomi said, grateful she was opening up to her. The war between them had reached a truce, due to a much bigger threat. It was almost worth being put in this position to finally be on neutral ground.

‘I was angry,’ Morgan said, winding the thread around her finger. ‘I thought you were trying to push me out.’

‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Naomi began to say, but Morgan seemed keen to get whatever it was off her chest.

‘For a little while, I hated you,’ Morgan continued. ‘But I had one friend. Someone who understood.’

‘Taz?’ She would withhold the lecture about speaking to strangers online for now.

Morgan nodded. ‘He said you were out of order, trying to take my inheritance. He called you the cuckoo in the nest. He said a lot of things.’ Her face was tight with anxiety as she hugged her knees. ‘I don’t feel like that any more. I know you’re doing your best.’

Naomi waited patiently for Morgan to continue.

‘Taz said we should be together.’ She swallowed. ‘That he’d look after me. But I think it was him in the woods.’ She recalled the strength of his grip, the smell of cannabis on his clothes. Her frown deepened as the responsibility for her actions landed at her door. She told Naomi how they had met, of how she had gravitated towards a life online as she sat at home alone. ‘I thought he was my friend,’ she said. ‘But what if it was him who jumped me? What if he’s tracked me down?’

‘Have you spoken to him since?’ Naomi’s eyes fell to the laptop that was folded on the ground.

‘He’s not online now,’ Morgan said. ‘But he messaged earlier to ask how I was.’

‘And there was nothing out of the ordinary? Did he mention that you’d been hurt?’ Outside, a gnarled tree branch bounced against the living room window in an ominous tap, tap, tap. But the storm was low on Naomi’s list of priorities as Morgan confided in her about this latest threat.

‘He was talking about a new online game,’ she continued. ‘That’s all.’

‘Then there’s nothing to say it was him. I mean, he could live anywhere. He might not even live in the UK.’ Naomi paused for thought. ‘This guy likes you, right?’

‘Yeah,’ Morgan said. ‘A lot.’

‘So why would he jump you and then run away?’

‘I don’t know.’ Morgan raised her hands to her head. ‘I can’t remember . . . But I wasn’t drunk, like Lloyd’s trying to make out. I didn’t empty that flask. I barely tasted it. It was rank.’