‘Yes, I believe Faith is capable of murder.’ Ella looked at April when she added, ‘Your testimony was particularly compelling. I didn’t know about Nick’s alleged fantasy about knives.’

‘Nor did anyone else,’ said April. ‘Obviously she made it up. Literally minutes after me telling her Nick wasn’t as rich as she assumed, she was planning his murder. I can’t begin to understand how her mind works.’

‘I can,’ Ella said. ‘That fantasy wasn’t something plucked out of thin air.’ She concentrated on turning the stem of her glass before continuing. ‘This can go no further, and if it does, I’ll deny it, and Mum most certainly will.’

April’s jaw dropped. ‘The fantasy wasn’t Nick’s, it was your dad’s, wasn’t it?’

‘And not so much a fantasy,’ Ella replied carefully. She flinched as if the thoughts she was about to share caused physical pain. ‘Mum broke down after she heard you describe what Faith had said. That’s when she told me Dad had attacked and raped her twice, once soon after he’d suggested a divorce and she’d refused, and again when she had the audacity to demand that she should keep the house and he should leave. She was too scared to go against anything he said after that. He held a knife to her throat, both times.’

‘Shit,’ April whispered.

Ella bent forward and covered her face with her hands. ‘I knew he’d treated Mum badly, but I never realised how sick he was.’

Tara rubbed Ella’s back and waited until she had straightened up before asking as gently as she could, ‘Do you think he did the same to Faith?’

‘From the way she talked about him, you would think he was a loving and devoted husband, but that was a lie, and I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that Faith described a fantasy that my dad liked to enact.’

‘You have to say something,’ said April. ‘What if Faith is found not guilty?’

‘It won’t change Mum’s mind, and our energies are better spent elsewhere.’ Ella paused and took a breath, her composure returning. ‘My doubts about Faith go back much further than what happened last February. She’s always been a bit elusive about her past, and I was wondering if she ever spoke to you about her parents.’

‘I know they died within a short space of time,’ Tara said. ‘I think Faith had lost them both by the time she was twenty.’

April gave a nervous laugh. ‘You’re not suggesting she killed them are you?’

‘No, they both died from natural causes. I checked,’ Ella added. ‘Her mum had a stroke and her dad died from cirrhosis of the liver.’

‘She told me her dad made her mum’s life a misery,’ said April. ‘He was an alcoholic.’

Ella held her gaze. ‘He was also a car mechanic.’