Somehow Melissa got home. She told Eddie that she needed to leave, mumbling something about a migraine, and then stumbled her way back to their little house by the sea.

The house felt cold and empty when Melissa opened the front door. There was nobody at home. Leah had been invited to a party and had gone to her friend’s house straight from school to get ready. Ray was due back later on. She had planned a cosy night, just the two of them. She’d even bought some nice chicken Kievs to have for tea with a bottle of wine that was now chilling in the fridge.

Melissa headed straight for the kitchen without even taking off her coat and retrieved the bottle. She opened it and poured herself a large glass, which she drank almost in one. Her brain was working overtime. What did she have in the house that would prove who Ray was? They had no passports – there had been no need for them, as they didn’t take holidays abroad. Melissa had never seen any paperwork, either – no bank statements or credit card bills. She had always assumed that Ray dealt with all that stuff at his office.

His office? But there was no office. He was a bloody violinist. Her husband played the bloody violin for a living. Melissa could feel bile rising in her throat. She made it to the kitchen sink just in time as the wine and what was left of her lunch reappeared.

Unperturbed, she wiped her mouth and poured herself a second glass and sat at the kitchen table to think. It took a few moments for her mind to clear enough for her to even begin to think in straight lines, but as the fog slowly cleared, she started to see clues. Ray was away so much. He had always told her that this was his work, but what if that was a lie? Well, it clearly was a lie. He wasn’t a bodyguard at all, but a musician. So where was he when he wasn’t with her? He could hardly have been living in his car. He must have another house somewhere.

And then slowly, Melissa remembered Grace. Her husband was called Charles. Melissa had seen a photograph. She tried now to picture it, but it had been such a long time ago. All she remembered was that Charles looked a lot like Ray. So, had Ray or Charles or whatever he was called been duping Grace, too? She had turned up with that cock-and-bull story about them being sisters-in-law, but maybe she had really believed that. After all, when Melissa had told Ray of her visit, he had concocted that story about his half-brother Charles. No wonder he’d been so determined that the two women shouldn’t meet. He must have been terrified that if put together, they would have worked out his secret.