He slides his hand under the hem of my skirt and between my thighs. I really don’t want to and so I place my hand on his, stopping it from moving any further upwards. I know he won’t be happy; he doesn’t like to be denied anything. I remind him that he said he had to go to the new building site in the park because he left his phone there earlier today. I don’t really care that he has lost his phone, but I don’t want to have sex with him right now.

He looks down at my hand and I see the anger just seconds before he slaps me. He storms out of the house and I am alone. I call that a win.

I grab a bottle of gin; I am running out and so I make a mental note to get some more. I have already decided to finish this bottle before he gets home. I know he won’t let me refuse him sex a second time in one day and if it’s all the same, I would rather be drunk when it happens.

There is a knock at the door, and I know before I answer who will be standing there. DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles. I am relieved to see him at the house again. I thought R had done something to him and that’s why he’d stayed away. Maybe I have overestimated R’s reach.

There is no use fighting the police anymore. Even though they haven’t got R yet, they seem determined. It’s the first time R hasn’t been able to weasel his way out of trouble with the police and I don’t think he likes the loss of power. I have no doubt he will try anything to redress the balance.

DS Grey tells me she has been to visit the house in Oswestry. I have a mixture of emotions when I hear this. I have both good and bad memories of R in that house, before he turned into the monster he is now.

Although he was never quite right, when I think about our history I can’t understand how I hadn’t realised what he had done. Now, the police have found a body. It’s not a total shock, let’s put it that way. I should have known sooner, or at least suspected.