The tone of April’s voice was off. Faith picked up on it too. ‘But is there someone you do know?’

‘I could list a dozen,’ said April. ‘There’s a Sophie and a Siobhan, two Staceys, a Suzanne. Shall I go on?’

There was one name Tara noticed was missing. On the day she had visited April’s office, she had spoken to one of her colleagues. The woman had apologised on April’s behalf for nearly knocking a couple of cake boxes out of Tara’s hand, and had appeared desperately concerned – or had it been a severe case of guilt? Her name was Sara, and she had been heavily pregnant. Little wonder April wouldn’t want to consider her a suspect.

As their pace quickened, April looked out across the river. The milky sunlight gave the water a pearlescent quality, while the land on the other side was painted in layers of varying shades of grey. There were church spires and other signs that the industrial landscape they were following had given way to gentler scenes. ‘I think that’s Eastham over there,’ she said.

Tara remained quiet, as did Faith.

‘There are some lovely places to visit. I could take you to Eastham Country Park some time. Jason and I were always borrowing Dexter so we could go for long walks and have brunch in the Mimosa Tea Garden,’ she said, a wavering smile on her face.

‘It sounds lovely,’ Faith said with a heavy dose of cynicism.

‘We were happy,’ she replied, her steps faltering. ‘And I don’t understand why he would risk that for someone else. Yes, I could go through his phone and pick out women’s names beginning with S, or any other letter you care to choose, but pretty much all of them are in my contacts list too. It doesn’t make sense. Not one of them would be worth risking what we had. Not one.’ She pursed her lips together and they trembled.

Tara willed Faith to put an arm around April or do something, anything, to let her know that she wasn’t alone. When it became apparent this wasn’t going to happen, she moved behind Faith and pushed her out of the way so she could slip an arm around April’s waist.

‘It’s a lot to take in and you’ll need time to process how you feel and plan what to do next,’ Tara said.

‘But where do I go from here?’

‘You’re the auditor,’ Faith piped up. ‘Do some more digging.’

Tara gave her a look, eyebrows raised. You’re not helping. In response, she imagined eyes being rolled behind Faith’s shades.

‘You don’t have to rush into anything,’ Tara continued. ‘Take it slowly. And keep talking to us.’