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‘Stay here,’ Reid said, gently but firmly. ‘You don’t need to do anything else.’

And despite his wobbly gait and what must have been a terrifically painful head, he hobbled over to Philip and explained that his wife was about to be taken urgently to hospital, where she would be under a state of arrest for the murder of Holly Moore and the attempted murder of himself and Anna Sousa.

Philip took three running steps towards the ambulance, and Anna wondered whether he’d taken any of that in. But it was at least good to see that he cared a little for the woman he’d cheated on persistently.

James was staring at Reid, his face slack with shock. ‘I… you’re an actual police officer,’ he said.

Reid gave him a confused look. ‘I… yes. We met yesterday.’

‘I know, I… I thought you were a fake,’ he said, and his eyes travelled to Ned. ‘I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t trust anyone.’

And then he sat heavily on the ground, on what must have been viciously uncomfortable gravel, and he started sobbing into his hands in a way that all but broke Anna’s heart.

There was more, too, later. When Anna had climbed into the back of a squad car with Reid and used her replacement phone to call Gael at last.

‘OK,’ she said as he answered. ‘I’ve done some stuff and I want you to listen and try to be OK with it, because I really need your help right now.’

‘Jesus, Anna,’ he said, in a voice that was far warmer and more steeped in relief than she’d expected. ‘I thought you were dead. You can… Just come and tell me everything and we’ll work it out. OK?’

And actually, he basically did, though much of it made her uncomfortable.

He listened while she explained that this had never been about a group of kids killing their friend, but about a woman filled with rage at the student her husband had taken advantage of.

‘Only she got the wrong girl,’ she added, with an empty feeling of sadness.

‘She killed Holly Moore instead of Esther Thomas. One innocent girl instead of another.’

She told him that her brother Eddie had been her only confidante, but that she’d twisted the truth to manipulate him. Told him it had been James, in a moment of rage when he realised she’d cheated, and that they would have to rally together if anyone found out.

‘So James Sedgewick didn’t know?’ Gael asked her.

Anna sighed then, long and loud. ‘Not until I gave him enough information to make it click. I was wrong and Maria was right. I think he tried to kill himself that day. He realised that this all came back to that necklace, and Esther’s affair with his dad.

Which meant someone in his family killed her.

She died because of him and he didn’t even have anyone to confide in. ’

Gael nodded, slowly, and then said, ‘But you were right, too. There was danger. Esther Thomas would not have been safe. Nor would whatever young woman Philip chose to move in on next.’

He listened while she told him about Kit Frankland and Ryan Jaffett too, and his expression was nothing but understanding. Understanding, and maybe a little sad.

Once she’d finished, he sat back with a sigh. ‘What you have, it’s… it’s going to be some goddamn story.’

‘It is,’ Anna agreed.

‘We’ve… had an email,’ he said after that. ‘From Roland Frankland. It arrived while you were on your way back. He’s threatening us with legal action.’

‘Shit.’ She felt her heart twisting and then said, ‘I don’t have any defence.’

‘That isn’t true,’ Gael replied. ‘It sounds like there are a lot of things I can say in reply. Like the fact that his son basically left you with a known abuser to be sexually assaulted. The fact he covered up for other assaults.’ He nodded.

‘I don’t think you were the only one manipulating, there. ’

She felt a sense of wrongness rising up in her. ‘No. I did the wrong thing, Gael.’ Her voice was shaking as she said, ‘There was obviously a line, and I shouldn’t have crossed it.’

‘No,’ he said, ‘you shouldn’t, but I think…

I should never have pushed you to cross it, either.

’ He frowned and then said, ‘Just because the easy way of getting to a story is seduction, that doesn’t mean it’s right for me to push you into it.

I’m… sorry. About all of it.’ He gave her a look that was full of pain.

‘The things that happened with Ryan Jaffett, they’re my fault.

After I thought you were dead, I had time to feel a lot of guilt over this, and it’s…

well.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I’m going to support you over this, and try to sort something out with the Franklands.

If anyone stands to be in trouble, I think it should be the Ensign. Not you.’

Anna wasn’t sure how she felt about that. How she should feel about that. There was obvious relief, but there was a grimy feeling of taking the easy way out, too.

You’ll have to make this better, somehow , she thought. And own what you did, too.

There was another feeling that hit her as she left the Ensign : a feeling that things had changed for the better. And that they had a good chance of staying changed. So it was with a shaky smile that she messaged Reid to tell him she was on her way to him.