‘No! I wanted to make her see that she had to leave Lowrie alone.’

‘So you’re walking up the footpath towards the standing stone and it’s just getting light.’ Perez gave an encouraging smile. ‘What happened then?’

Willow felt as if she was almost dozing. She’d had very little sleep in the last few days and the tension had drained from her. The sun was strong now and the room was very warm.

‘We sat close to the cliff edge,’ Grusche said. ‘We talked. She said she hadn’t been this happy for years and at last it seemed that everything was going right for her. Perhaps she’d been silly to place so much importance on having a baby. She’d finally found the man she loved and nothing else seemed important.’

‘You thought she was talking about Lowrie?’

‘Who else could she be talking about?’

‘Her husband,’ Perez said. ‘I think she was talking about her husband.’

‘I showed her the photograph.’ Grusche was almost screaming. Willow thought she didn’t listen much, either. ‘I laid it on the grass. I demanded to know, Jimmy, what was going on here. I had that right. What had she been she doing in Lerwick with my Lowrie the week before his wedding?’

‘And what did she say?’

Again Willow had to strain to hear Perez’s words.

‘She said it was a secret. “But don’t worry, Grusche, I don’t really have designs on your son. Besides, he’s quite grown-up now. He doesn’t need you to look out for him.” Then she laughed. As if I was ridiculous for caring what happened to my boy.’

‘So you killed her,’ Perez said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. ‘Talk me through exactly how that happened, would you, Grusche? For the record.’

‘I wanted to stop her laughing,’ Grusche said. ‘And I wanted to be sure that she’d never make Lowrie so unhappy that he wanted to kill himself again.’

She paused and Willow listened carefully, imagining how the scene might have played out. They were recording the interview, but this first telling might help her to understand.