Her eyes were gritty from tiredness. She shut them, allowed herself to relax, to believe that all would be right in her crazy world. At last. A million pounds. It wasn’t, as Jo had kindly pointed out, enough to buy this house. Such a shame. She’d been happier here than she’d ever been, it would have been nice to have stayed. Memories came rushing back. Peter laughing. Spinning her around. Kissing her. Lying to her. Her eyes snapped open.

‘Food.’ Jo came bustling through. ‘You need to eat. How are you supposed to make decisions without sustenance?’

A plate of cheese and toast was put in front of Allison, each slice neatly cut into triangles to tempt her. She picked up one, nibbled the edge. It was surprisingly good. Within minutes, she’d eaten the lot. It was impossible not to laugh at the look of satisfaction on Jo’s face. ‘Yes, okay, you were right, I was hungry and feel a lot better now.’ She wasn’t lying; the food, or maybe the feeling of being cared for, had gone a long way to restoring her equilibrium.

‘Well, are you going to tell me about what did happen on that platform and why you were there if not to kill your husband?’

That Jo would have thought Allison capable of such a deed still weighed heavily on her. There must be some sign, some mark. She shook the idea away. ‘I told you Peter was stupidly excited about marking three months of being married. He was disappointed when I wasn’t equally as enthusiastic, so I decided to make it up to him. I’d nagged him about being home on time for once and knew he wouldn’t let me down.’ Allison’s hand trembled as she brushed toast crumbs from her mouth. Peter had been so stupidly, childishly excited about going out for dinner that night despite them eating out two or three nights a week.

‘This is special,’ he’d said, kissing her on the cheek. ‘Three months married. Why shouldn’t we celebrate?’

Allison shook her head at the memory. ‘I felt guilty I hadn’t made more of an effort, so I decided to do something special for him that day and planned to arrive on the platform and shout surprise.’ She met Jo’s eyes and smiled. ‘He did love that kind of thing.’ Allison’s smile faded slowly as the event played out in her head.

‘The platform was more crowded than I’d expected. I saw him, of course, he is… was… taller than average and he always stood in the same place on the platform. We are, most of us, creatures of habit. I saw him, but it was difficult to push through the mass of people. The crowd was unusually grumpy, everyone with long faces, a strange uneasy feeling in the air.