Imogen shot DI Walsh a look. She knew he was only doing his job, but she hated every part of this investigation. The questions needed to be asked and she was glad that she didn’t have to do the asking. Just the thought of Adrian pressuring a vulnerable witness was making her angry on his behalf. It just wasn’t in him.

‘No, he hasn’t done anything wrong. I was lying before. He never touched me, I swear,’ Caitlin cried.

‘Do you have any idea what you’ve done?’ Imogen fumed. She was finally allowing some of her rage to surface. Now that DI Walsh had heard the statement she felt there was some room to express her anger.

‘I know and I’m sorry. If there is any way I could take it back, then I would!’

‘So, what did happen to you then? Who raped you?’ DI Walsh asked.

‘No one. I wasn’t raped. I phoned Gillian as soon as Adrian turned me down. She said she would sort it, but I had to do something too.’

‘What kind of something?’ DI Walsh asked.

‘I had to hurt myself … Down there. I had to make it look really bad.’

‘How was she making you do that?’ Imogen said. She was finding it hard to believe that anyone would tell someone else to do that, let alone a woman.

‘She said if I didn’t, then she would get someone else who would. She gets people to do things, that’s what she does.’

‘What about all your other injuries, they aren’t self-inflicted, someone else did that. Who hurt you?’ Imogen said.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Please tell DS Miles how sorry I am.’

‘I don’t suppose he cares much how sorry you are. Do you have any idea the kind of damage you’ve caused? People like you disgust me. It’s hard enough for women and men who have been sexually assaulted to come forward. To use that as some kind of power play, to get what you want, to hurt others? How can you live with yourself? Every time a person reports a rape, there are plenty of people who call them liars. Not to mention the fact that false claims are investigated with the same attention. Attention that could be used elsewhere. What you have just done has made it ten times harder for the next person who walks through the door and says that they were raped.’

Tears were streaming down Caitlin Watts’ face now, but Imogen didn’t really care. She could go on about this for hours.

‘OK, DS Grey, you’ve made your point,’ DI Walsh said. ‘How did you find out Gillian had died?’

‘I got a phone call, not long after you all left earlier. I didn’t recognise the voice. It was a man. Maybe he was part of it. I don’t know. But he told me I didn’t need to be afraid any more, that Gillian was dead and that I could tell the truth about DS Miles now.’