He got to his feet and said, ‘Ethan Prescott, I’m placing you under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Rachel Elliott.’

He started to read him his rights but his voice was drowned out by a scream that came from Claire. It lasted several seconds and when it subsided, she looked up at James, her eyes unflinching and fierce.

Suddenly, shockingly, he knew he’d got it wrong, and that it wasn’t Ethan who had killed Rachel.

‘You can’t do this to my son,’ Claire yelled at James. ‘He’s innocent. It wasn’t him who went looking for Rachel. You need to believe that.’

As James looked at her, he felt a shudder run down the length of his spine.

‘I think I know that now, Mrs Prescott, because it was you, wasn’t it?’ he said. ‘You’re the one who went looking for Rachel and when you found her you killed her.’

Claire’s face seemed to fold in on itself and her breathing became a series of violent gasps. In between them she managed to splutter out a confession.

‘Yes, yes, it was me. Not Ethan. But I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was an accident. She made me lose control.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

After Claire’s startling confession the room descended into chaos.

Libby’s eyes blazed as she grabbed Claire’s walking stick out of her hand and tried to hit her with it.

‘You killed my sister,’ she screamed. ‘How could you? I thought you loved her like a daughter.’

James managed to rush forward and get hold of Libby’s wrist before she could do any damage and as he pulled her away, she dropped the stick and collapsed onto the floor in a flood of tears.

At the same time, Claire’s traumatised son backed up against the wall and started shaking his head in disbelief.

Both James and his DC moved into damage limitation mode. They knew there was no point trying to get more out of Claire with Libby and Ethan in the room.

James told Abbott to help Libby up off the floor and shouted at Claire not to move from the sofa. He didn’t think she heard him because she was rocking back and forth with her hands clamped over her ears.

He then crossed the room and took Ethan by the arm before leading him out through the door into the hallway. Ethan didn’t try to resist and just kept shaking his head and mumbling to himself.

James led him into the kitchen and got him to sit at the table. He then went back into the living room where Libby was now on her feet and hurling abuse at Claire as Abbott tried to push her gently towards the door.

With James’s help they finally managed to get her into the kitchen where she fell into Ethan’s arms.

‘Stay here with them,’ James told Abbott. ‘I’ll call for backup and then see what more I can get out of Mrs Prescott.’

When he returned to the living room, he was relieved to see that Claire still hadn’t moved from the sofa. But now she was sobbing and dabbing at her eyes with a screwed-up hanky.