Abs wasn’t the kind of person who got angry, but he was incandescent with rage and fear right at that moment, thinking of all the ways this terrible thing that had happened was going to ruin everything for all of them. Badly hungover, he snapped sarcastically, ‘Really, Tone, you think so?’

Jez went and sat quietly with his legs crossed on the woodland floor, a few feet from the dead girl, looking at her blankly.

‘Look what you’ve done, Deano,’ Tony shouted at his friend.

Deano hugged his knees to his chest and wept. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whined. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘Don’t give us the sob story, mate,’ shouted Tony. ‘Just tell us what the hell happened?’

Deano shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe it. ‘I don’t… I just don’t remember. We were drinking and then I must have gone into blackout, and the next thing I know, I woke up and she was… dead.’ His voice became very small. ‘Strangled.’

‘You’ve gone too far this time, mate.’ Tony jabbed a finger. ‘Way too far.’

‘Wait.’ Abs stepped forward. ‘Too far? What are you talking about?’

‘Deano’s got previous for violence. He attacked an old girlfriend once and there was a restraining order.’

‘Great.’

Abs raised his face to the clouds drifting across the sky, the tips of the trees forming spidery fingers at the edges of his vision. It was so quiet in this wooded place, so different from the hurly-burly of his usual life, the noise and frantic pace of town. It was still silly o’clock in the morning. Back home, he’d be blissfully asleep beneath expensive cotton sheets, or on his way to film LIE!, flying across Essex in a cab, sipping a soya latte from a KeepCup as he watched the shuttered shops and empty offices flash by. His headache, born of drink and magnified by panic, pounded behind his eyes. He shut them, trying to ignore Tony’s angry voice and Deano’s sobs, and the sight of that poor girl on the floor, to try and think.

They had to get a grip on the situation or he was going to lose everything.

‘Okay.’ He opened his eyes and said, ‘What are we going to do about it?’

‘Do?’ Tony looked at him as if he’d lost his marbles. ‘We’re going to call the police, is what we’re going to do.’

‘Now wait, let’s think about this.’

Abs held up his hands, playing for time. Fact was, he had more to lose than Tony and Jez, a lot more. Tony had a wife and kids, and Jez had just got together with a girl called Bethany, and they both had jobs, yes, but it’s not like either of them were famous.