‘I was still in the office and then—’ Laura broke off and turned to look over the river, to where flames lapped at the sky, the smoke swelling in great puffs of dark grey. Even in that moment she knew not to tell them more than that. Even then she realised she might have been the last person to have seen them, and that if she told the other women her story, she would have a motive.

Janie was shouting. ‘Was he in there?’ she asked Laura. ‘When you were in the office, was he in there with you?’

‘Harry?’ Laura breathed and turned to Janie. Of course she had to admit he was. They would all know soon enough. ‘He was, but that was … it was over an hour ago.’

Janie looked across sharply at the building. What was Harry doing in there? He wasn’t supposed to be. Harry and Miles had been drinking – he had texted her that earlier. That was why he hadn’t been home in time, and why she’d called Anna and asked if she could sit with the girls. She’d been angry with Harry that he could have let her down for that man, and yet …

‘Could he still be in there?’ Janie asked eventually, as Mia was also asking, ‘Was he alone?’

‘No – he was with …’ Laura’s voice trailed off. How she didn’t want to be the one with the answers, for suddenly it felt like the more she knew, the more guilty she must seem.

‘Miles Morgan,’ Mia finished for her. It wasn’t a question.

‘Yes,’ Laura confirmed as she glanced at her watch. ‘But like I said, that was over an hour ago. I left an hour ago,’ she repeated, drumming this into them.

For a moment the three women were silent. It was Janie who eventually spoke, as she took a step closer to the edge of the quay. ‘They were still in there,’ she said, and neither Laura nor Mia knew if this was a question or a statement, so they didn’t reply.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Friday 17 May – four days after the fire

Janie was given a short break. She curled her fingers around her cup of water, pressing them in and then releasing them, listening to the satisfying pop of the polystyrene cup as she did so.

Her daughters were at the forefront of her mind. She wondered what they were doing while their mother had been arrested and their father was in hospital, barely conscious as he drifted in and out of sleep. She wondered what Anna had told her girls, how much they knew about what was happening to her, and whether they thought she was actually capable of burning down their father’s office.

The relief of knowing Harry was still alive had been palpable but even that had faded as the days had passed and their futures continued to hang precariously in front of her.