‘You see, Mitch and I were to be married. We’d set a date.’ I proudly presented the fourth finger on my left hand. On it was a small white solitaire diamond, simply encased in a plain gold setting. I kept my fourth finger proudly extended and pushed my hand close up under Oliver’s eyes. There was a momentary flicker of something on his face. It was hope. I saw him vaguely register my plan. We’d work together. The bitch would go down for a very long time.

‘Married? When?’

‘When we came back from Italy.’ I pretended that Mitch and I had been a couple the whole time we were away. ‘We took a short break before Mitch decided he was ready to settle down. He was never going back to Rebecca. Remember, she dumped him to be with you? You remember, don’t you?’ A mild aggression accompanied my rhetoric. He needed to understand, get the plot line and agree to play along before I had to leave.

‘Yes, he was furious with both Rebecca and me. I remember.’

‘We need to build on Rebecca’s jealousy. Don’t you see, Oliver? You remember how I told you a couple of weeks ago that Mitch and I were getting married. We were jetting off to the Maldives and doing the beach ceremony thing. I showed you the brochures.’

‘Yes, she never really got over Mitch. Even when we started dating.’ Oliver pondered over the storyline. Confusion over his relationship with Rebecca was leading him in the direction I was hoping; to believe that perhaps Rebecca had been jealous of me when she discovered my relationship with her ex-boyfriend. Perhaps she was devastated beyond belief that Mitch didn’t want her back.

There was a certain ring of truth in what I was saying. If that were the case then Rebecca may indeed have arrived before him and bludgeoned her soulmate to death.

There was no proof that a man rather than a woman had used the baseball bat. Oliver had already asked the police that question. Rebecca’s prints hadn’t been on the bat but she may have wiped them off or worn gloves. Mitch probably had decided that she was no good long term and could never have forgiven her.

I watched my confused co-conspirator mull the details over in his head. The sentry glanced at his watch, checking synchronicity with the ticking time bomb on the wall. There was a ten minute window left.

‘Oliver, it’s your best hope. It’s probably your only hope. You’re in the frame for a murder you didn’t commit. Rebecca was jealous of my relationship with Mitch and couldn’t accept that he didn’t want her. I’m going to the police station first thing tomorrow morning to make a full statement.’ I stopped for breath. Time was up.