‘Mum?’ Cassie stood on the staircase, in her winter pyjamas. Thicker and warmer than the ones she’d been wearing last night. It was so early. I hoped Benji was asleep. I hoped he knew nothing about this, but I would have to tell them both soon, try to explain what had happened. But not yet. I needed more time, just another hour even, before I had to shatter my children’s worlds. ‘What are you doing?’

I looked down and saw at my feet a pile of framed photos, the glass already cracked, Karen’s smiling face in every one.

I must have slept. I lay on the bed, face down in Mike’s pillow, smelling his aftershave, and when I opened my eyes again the light was different. The clock – his clock – told me it was almost midday. I had two children and a houseful of guests and I’d been passed out on my bed for hours.

‘Any better?’ Jodi was standing in the doorway. She was dressed in a Breton top and jeans, her feet in Ugg boots, which were stained around the edges with grass. The hot weather had broken, and outside the air was uneasy and chill.

I struggled up. ‘God, I’m sorry. You won’t have had any breakfast.’

‘We found some. Please, Ali, don’t worry about us. We’re going to take off in a minute, get out of your hair. Cal’s just in the shower – he’s got a wicked head on him.’

‘But . . .’ Would they be allowed to just leave? Suddenly I felt that if anyone left, if the weekend ended, we’d be stuck in this nightmare for ever.

‘The police have taken our statements. Not that we could help very much, sadly.’ She paused. ‘I’m so sorry. I can’t believe this is happening.’

My mouth felt parched and sour. ‘Me neither. It can’t be true. It must have been . . . Well, someone must have come into the garden. It was dark, she couldn’t have seen.’

Jodi said nothing. She came and sat on the edge of the bed, her face set in sympathetic lines. We’d never been that close really, me and her. I knew so little about her, despite years of friendship – what her parents were like, if she had siblings. We wouldn’t have taken a city break together or gone to see a show, just the two of us. Since university it had always been me and Karen, rolling our eyes sometimes behind Jodi’s back, as she tagged along with Callum everywhere. I wondered how Karen was, if she was crouched in some sterile room somewhere while they poked and prodded her. If her eyes were like those of the women in the shelter – hunted. Haunted. I should be with her. But how could I, after what Mike had just told me?