‘Let me go! Fucking hell, what are you doing?’ I pushed back hard against him, and understood, with horror, that I could not move. I couldn’t stop him from doing whatever he was going to do.

I think that was the moment I fully believed it. Callum had raped Karen. In my garden. It had really happened, and it had started as this did – a woman slowly realising that her supposed friend had her trapped, and she could do nothing about it. He had raped Karen and he had murdered Martha, all those years ago. And Mike had borne the blame for both.

I lowered my voice, tried to sound friendly. ‘Cal, come on. It’s me, Ali. I wouldn’t call the police on you! I just wanted to check on Jodi.’

‘Jodi.’ The pressure released a little. He was hurting my hand, so I let him take the phone. For a moment I thought he was going to smash it on the tiles, but he laid it on the counter. ‘Having the baby.’

‘That’s right. So why don’t we go and see her, OK?’ If I could get out of this house, get him to the hospital, well, they had security guards. Other people around. ‘We can call a cab, what do you say?’

He considered it for a moment, made slow and clumsy by drink. ‘You told the police on Mikey. Didn’t you? Told them he admitted it. You lied, didn’t you?’ How did he even know that? The lines that ran between us all, from Karen to Jodi to Callum?

‘I – I had no choice. I needed Jake to help Mike, donate his liver.’

Callum was shaking his head. The pressure on my body was back, his hips and chest against mine. ‘You’ve no loyalty, Ali. I don’t trust you. Mikey gets in trouble and what do you do? You turn your back. Shack up with ol’ Bill five minutes later.’

‘I . . .’ It was true. I didn’t know how to justify myself. ‘Please, you’re hurting me. Let me go.’

‘Oh Ali!’ He made a noise like a sigh and sob. ‘What am I going to do?’ His clumsy hand pushed the hair back from my face. Somewhere between a slap and a caress. I hadn’t been this close to him for so long and it felt all wrong. My blood was roaring in my ears, all my senses on fire. Get out. Get out. This isn’t safe. I raced through scenarios of what to do, all the while holding on to how crazy it was. He was my friend. I’d trusted him. He pulled my face around to look at him, twisting my neck. ‘How come never me, eh? You had a go on Mikey and Billy-boy. Why not me?’ His plaintive tone made me want to vomit.