‘Why would she say it?’ We were whispering, as if afraid they were listening. They might be listening. They might have the whole room wired, for all I knew. Would I get into trouble, talking to him about it? He’d been charged already. That meant they’d taken all our statements, Karen’s and Mike’s too, and concluded he’d done it.

‘I’ve no idea. She was really pissed. We all were.’

‘She had bruises, Mike. All round her neck. I saw them.’ I thought of the blood sliding down Karen’s thigh, that small drop, and I shuddered.

He frowned. ‘She did?’

‘Bad ones. Someone – it looked like someone choked her.’

He thought about it for a moment. ‘Is it possible someone came into the garden? You know, it was dark, she was so drunk. Bill had gone to bed already. Where was Callum?’

‘Passed out on the couch. He looked like he was out cold.’

‘So maybe someone did come in. From the lane, you know. Or even through the woods. No security cameras that way.’

I thought about Cassie. Would she have seen something? And what was she doing out there? I took a deep breath. ‘I . . . I know you’d never do a thing like this. But you need to tell me everything. Is there any reason you can think of that Karen would say it was you?’

Mike looked down at his hands. I saw there was a scratch on one. I also saw that he had something to say to me, and I ran cold all over. ‘I . . . Please believe me, Al, I would never tell you this now, not like this. But I think it will come out. I think maybe they’ll be able to . . . So I better. Oh Christ.’

I said nothing. Cold was trickling down me, all the hairs on my body raised from the air conditioning and sheer dread. For the second time that night I wanted to turn back time, run away from this moment, stop up my ears and close my eyes. Don’t say it, Mike. I knew that, as soon as he said the words, our lives as they currently were would be over. But also that there was no choice. No choice at all. Because here we were in the police station and Karen was saying he’d raped her.

‘Karen and me . . . but it was just once, I swear to you. I regretted it right away. That might be why. She might want to punish me or something, you know how she is about rejection, so . . .’

‘You’re saying you and Karen . . .’ Don’t. Don’t go there. Rewind. ‘You were having an affair?’

‘Not an affair, Ali! Not that. Just one time, I swear. I don’t know what I was thinking.’