DC Devine had this way of looking at me, a long slow blink, that I found very unnerving. I’d always struggled with eye contact. It wasn’t encouraged in my family. You kept your head down, got on with things. I’d gone to see him first thing in the morning after getting back from Birmingham. It had been a long sleepless night, wrestling with myself. But, in the end, I knew I was prepared to do it. Why else would I have gone to see Karen? She was always going to ask for something in return. ‘You said you saw nothing that night. That Mike said nothing to you.’

‘I – I was in shock, I think. I didn’t realise the significance. Karen was in such a state and I didn’t understand what was going on at first. I couldn’t make sense of it.’

We were in the nasty interview room, the one where one side of the table had the veneer all picked away, leaving a rough surface that caught at unsuspecting fingers. He had a notebook in front of him but hadn’t written down anything I was saying. Instead he leaned back in his seat.

‘Tell me again what happened.’

‘Well, I went outside to see where Mike was. Karen was screaming and crying, a real state, and I thought maybe there’d been some kind of accident.’

‘This was after Ms Rampling came into the kitchen and said, Mike raped me, yes?’ How could he remember these facts off the top of his head?

‘Yes, I suppose, but I couldn’t – I didn’t take it in right away. Mike was on the swing seat, and he was slumped over, and I thought he was asleep, but then he said, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt her.’ That was the phrase I’d come up with as I lay awake last night. Ambiguous, slightly, but hopefully enough to appease Karen.

‘Meaning Karen, as you interpret it now?’

‘I suppose so. I don’t know for sure.’

Another slow blink. ‘You didn’t mention this at the time, Mrs Morris.’

‘No. As I said, it was all such a jumble. It just came back to me and I thought it might be . . . relevant.’

‘Because it suggests he did attack her?’

I put my hands on my knees to stop them shaking. I had to keep it together, hold on to all the bits of my life that were flying out of control. ‘I don’t know. It could do.’

‘Which you were previously sure could not possibly have been the case.’

I stared at the damaged table. They should throw it away, get a new one that wasn’t so scarred. ‘He’s my husband. I just wanted to protect him, I think. That’s natural, isn’t it?’