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SADIE: ‘You can choose to use this video in a pod, or on your website, or maybe you won’t use it at all, we’ll leave it up to you. We just want to express our disappointment and hurt – yes it was very hurtful – that you chose to end the series the way you did.’

Cristy’s eyes moved carefully between the three faces on the screen, Gabe and Lukas either side of Sadie who was making no secret of the fact that she was reading from a pre-prepared script. Each of them appeared solemn and, on the parts of Gabe and Lukas, perhaps bemused by the fact that they were having to make this video at all. They’d sent it half an hour ago, with a follow-up text alerting Cristy to the fact that it was attached to an email. She’d waited until she was at the office before opening it and this was now the second time she and Connor had watched it. Clove was there too; Jacks had rung to say he was running late but would be in by eleven.

SADIE: ‘I don’t understand why you felt the need to do what you did. I thought we’d become friends over the past few weeks, certainly I trusted you and, as you know, I gave you virtually unlimited access to my life, my thoughts, all my emotions, and my story. I totally believed you would treat your findings, and me, with sensitivity and respect. Throughout our time together it seemed my judgement was sound, you were kind, supportive, and always careful about detail, as well as mindful of my feelings. I fully trusted your honesty and integrity, and never thought for a moment that you would end up using my aunt’s death, and my bereavement, to sensationalize your podcast the way you have. The question of whether or not Mia was pushed to her death will now always hang over me. I don’t deserve that, and I can’t believe that you think I do.

‘We all know that you have no evidence to back up your insinuations – you can’t have as none exists. You have framed them in such a way as to paint me in the very worst of lights and I’m sure that in your hearts you know I am not the person you are making me out to be. It has been a difficult and often painful journey for me to get to where I am now, but working with you, believing you were on my side every step of the way, was what helped me to keep going. Now, thanks to you, I have my father and uncle and I couldn’t be happier about that. But they are as shocked and upset by your betrayal – yes, that’s how we see it – as I am.’

LUKAS: ‘We won’t be taking any action against you, although of course we could. We’ve decided that it would only cause further heartache to go that route. Perhaps it will serve us better for your actions to be recognized, over time, for what they are: shamefully self-serving.

‘We have discussed making this video available to other press outlets and that option, of course, remains open to us. However, before we do that, we’d like to give you the opportunity to go on the record with an apology for the way you misled your listeners in the latest podcast and with an admission that, in spite of knowing your implications were without foundation, you went ahead with them anyway in order to create more interest in the series. If you are prepared to make a statement to that effect, we will not publish this video.’

As the screen darkened Cristy turned to the whiteboard where photographs of Sadie, Janina, Mia and Lottie were lined up along the top. Three dead, only one still alive: the child on the beach who’d grown into a beautiful and, as it turned out, very astute young woman. And now, presumably, a very rich one too.

But what if they were wrong? What if Mia really had jumped?

‘There’s no way we can do what they’re asking,’ Connor stated. ‘And no reason why we should.’

‘I say we call their bluff,’ Clove urged. ‘Do nothing, let everything stay as is … If they want to put out their little statement they can, I don’t see it making any difference to the way people are seeing things. Listeners know they’re not getting a full picture of the journals, and now they have a pretty damned good idea why. Half of them are already posting about it, they’re even outright saying Sadie killed her aunt for revenge as well as personal gain.’

‘All that is true,’ Cristy said, turning back to them, ‘but I’m afraid she’s outmanoeuvred us with this. Its tone, its subtlety and incisive attack on our integrity are powerful enough to do us a lot of damage going forward.’

‘But …’ Clove protested, and stopped when Cristy’s hand went up.

‘Sadie’s right,’ Cristy continued, ‘we don’t have any actual evidence to support why we – to quote her – painted her in the very worst of lights. And by calling our honesty and professional integrity into question – something we should have seen coming – she’s opened us up to the kind of scrutiny that’ll be hard to withstand.’

‘Why?’ Clove objected. ‘We haven’t lied about anything …’

‘And how could we, in all good conscience,’ Connor said, ‘have let her last interview run unchallenged when the fact that there is only her version of events absolutely needed to be acknowledged? We wouldn’t have been doing our jobs if we hadn’t gone for it, no matter how we phrased it. Just about every listener we have would have been calling it out before the episode had chance to finish. Even without the journals they’re thinking the sisters did away with Janina, and therein lies Sadie’s motive for punishing her aunt in the worst possible way. We had to do it.’

‘If that was her motive,’ Cristy stated.

Clove and Connor stared at her uncomprehendingly.

‘I’m not saying it wasn’t,’ she explained, ‘it would certainly have been a part of it, but without knowing what went on between them prior to Mia’s “fall” …’ She broke off with an impatient sigh, knowing there was no point speculating any further over that now.

‘Whatever we might think,’ she said, ‘if we let them run that video the public will turn, mark my words. We’ll be perceived as having treated Sadie Winters badly, or as Lukas put it, in a shamefully self-serving way. And ask yourselves this, where will that leave us with future investigations? Trust is at the very core of what we do. And we all know how spiteful some of the tabloids can be, how hungry they are to bring down success. So as soon as it’s known a new series of the “increasingly popular Hindsight ” is underway, out will come the Sadie Winters video to show how we treat people.’

‘Well, I for one am not up for putting out the kind of statement they’re asking for,’ Clove declared defiantly. ‘Apart from anything else, it’s too soon. It would be a knee-jerk on our part when we still don’t know how the police might have reacted to the pod. For all we know they’ve already pulled her in for further questioning.’

‘You’re right,’ Cristy agreed and reached for her phone. ‘Let me speak to David, see if he can find out what’s going on over there. If the investigators are still all over it, it could at least buy us some time.’

*

Almost an hour had passed by the time David rang back.

‘I’m putting you on speaker,’ Cristy told him, ‘Connor and Clove are here.’

‘Hey, guys,’ David said. ‘Here’s what I’ve got. Apparently the detectives have requested sight of the journals. I’m not sure if it was prompted by last night’s pod, but I got the impression they were interested to hear your views, and obviously they know you’ve seen the unpublished entries.

‘Not quite as helpful,’ he continued, ‘was that even if the journals claim that the Winters sisters sent Janina’s car off the road, the Procureur – prosecutor – thinks it still might not be seen as a strong enough motive for Sadie to act the way she did. For some it might, but it’s felt that a good lawyer would be able to trash the theory in a trial, if it came to that. So, as things stand, the chances of the police acting based on the unreliable nature of the journals alone are not very high.’

Seeing her own disappointment reflected in the others’ expressions, Cristy said, ‘Well, at least they’re not completely throwing it out.’ Maybe she wished they were: how hopelessly conflicted she kept feeling over this.

‘They’re not,’ David agreed, ‘and actually, there’s more. I had a chat with Victor Dubois this morning – you’ll remember he’s head of the law firm Mia uses – and he told me that it wasn’t Mia who sought the injunction on the journals, it was Sadie.’

Cristy stilled as she took this in, trying to work out what it could mean. The most obvious explanation chimed with what Sadie had always said, that she wanted to protect her aunt – after she’d vented her fury by practically demolishing the sitting room and kitchen, of course. But why had she never mentioned she was behind the injunction? She must have known they’d understand, had even been expecting it.

Connor said, ‘Remember when we told Mia about the injunction? She seemed not to know what we were talking about.’

It was true, she hadn’t, although it was hard to see how that was relevant now when the fact that Sadie hadn’t told her didn’t change anything … Unless … Cristy needed to get this straight in her head, could see the reason, almost hear it, but the others were still talking …

‘Have you heard anything from Sadie or Lukas since last night’s drop?’ David asked.

‘Actually we have,’ Connor replied. ‘I’ll send it over as soon as we’re done with this call.’

Cutting across David’s response, Cristy said, ‘Did Victor Dubois say anything else you can share?’

‘Not to do with this, but I’m having lunch with him later if there’s anything in particular you’d like me to ask?’

‘There is,’ Cristy replied. ‘I’d like to know if Mia had been in touch with him in the last couple of weeks about her will.’

‘Sure. What are you thinking?’

‘All kinds of things right now, but getting an answer to that might explain a lot and help us decide how to respond to the video you’re about to watch.’

*

‘Hey, team,’ Jacks sang out, going to drop his backpack on his chair and fishing out various objects.

‘You need to see the little gift of a video we’ve received from Sadie and family,’ Clove told him.

‘OK, cool. Here’s your old phone, Cristy. Like I said last night, highly recommended that you abandon it from hereon, but there’s something that came in while it was being worked on that I think you’ll want to hear.’

‘Who’s it from?’ Cristy asked, taking the mobile as if it might burn her. ‘Please tell me it’s not the creep who’s been texting …’

‘No more from him,’ Jacks assured her. ‘I mean, I think there were a couple, but Clyde – he’s the one who’s been checking it out – assured me he’s been shut down. Apparently there was some sort of spyware on it that’s gone now, but he doesn’t think it’s worth going with that phone again in case there was something he missed.’

‘OK, fine. We’ll get into how it got there later. Where’s this something you want me to listen to?’

‘Regular voicemail. First one. Is that coffee still hot?’

As he went to fill a mug for himself, Cristy called up the message and put the phone to her ear. Moments later, as she registered what was happening, she felt herself turning faintly dizzy.

‘What is it?’ Connor wanted to know.

Hitting the playback again, and putting it on speaker, she set the phone on her desk so everyone could hear what was happening at the other end of the line. It began with distant, indecipherable voices, and the sound of someone moving around, footsteps, items being shifted. There was some talk, Mia saying she hadn’t been sure Sadie would come, and Sadie asking why she’d think that. Sadie again, ‘Come along, it has to be …’ There was more movement followed by Mia saying, ‘We shouldn’t be in here, Lottie won’t like it.’

The gentle rasp of Mia breathing filled the next few minutes and a faint noise that wasn’t possible to decipher. Sadie spoke, but her voice was too far away, too faint for them to make out what she was saying.

Cristy rewound and replayed, but it did no good. She let the message run, and Mia’s voice was suddenly and briefly clear as she said, ‘What are you doing?’

After that only the occasional words were audible ‘… waiting,’ ‘mother,’ ‘afraid’. Mostly it was like a background mumble; they couldn’t even tell who was speaking, only that a lot was being said.

Filled with frustration Cristy held the phone out to Jacks.

Taking it, he said, ‘I’ll do my best, but don’t hold your breath.’

*

Almost an hour passed as Cristy, Connor and Clove walked the harbourside, giving Jacks the space to download, enhance, remove, audio-cleanse, test, search for more software, even make a couple of calls for additional expert advice. No one spoke, they were too tense, almost too afraid to share what was going on in their minds, to state what they were expecting, or hoping for. Cristy wasn’t even sure she knew, and guessed it was the same for the others. It was best simply to try not to think about it, not to let their imaginations run wild, although of course it was impossible not to.

Finally, Jacks texted to summon them back and as soon as they entered the office he gave them a thumbs up.

The unravelling of relief was almost palpable, as they sank into their chairs and Jacks hit play.

Cristy’s eyes widened with amazement and awe as both Mia’s and Sadie’s voices came through, stripped of the stifling muffle of background sound. It was the audible version of a film being processed, first nothing, then something, then a perfectly intact image. Yes, a few flaws here and there, some words missing …

‘Stop! Stop!’ Cristy cried, as the recording went past the last they’d heard. ‘Go back a few seconds.’

Jacks hit the keys and the message picked up where they’d left off.

‘We shouldn’t be in here, Lottie won’t like it,’ Mia said.

‘Lottie’s gone, Mia,’ Sadie responded.

A few moments passed. Mia said, ‘What are you doing?’

Sadie’s voice was further away, but clear enough. ‘Waiting for you to tell me why I’m here.’

Mia’s next words were lost, until she said, ‘… so please don’t go, Sadie …’

Long moments of nothing until Sadie spoke, almost inaudibly, ‘… can’t ignore what’s happened … did to my mother. And it was you, wasn’t it?’

Tearfully, Mia said, ‘Lottie made me. I didn’t want to …’ She either leaned onto the phone, or perhaps her hand covered it for a few moments, before she could be heard saying, ‘… past. Can’t we put it behind us?’

‘No, Mia, we can’t. I’m sorry …’ Some muffling and echoey distortion until she said, ‘… Why are you afraid? I took out the injunction to make sure you were protected from what you’d done.’

‘Yes, that was very good of you, but if you leave … I’ve already told Victor that I want to see him …’

Sadie’s laugh had no humour. ‘Are you about to pull a Lottie on me?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If I don’t do as you ask – if I don’t stay – you’ll cut me out of the will? You think it’s all about money, don’t you, Mia… always have. Lottie … same… had enough.’

There was another long silence before Mia said again, ‘What are you doing?’

Sadie’s voice was more distant as she replied, ‘We need some air in here.’

There was the sound of doors unlocking and what was surely wind whooshing into the room.

Mia cried, ‘Sadie! Everything’s blowing around …’

Closer now, Sadie said, ‘I thought you understood that if you changed your will, I would get the injunction lifted, and then everyone would know what you did. I thought you wanted to avoid that, to get away with what you did. And now you’re threatening me …’

‘Let me go. You’re hurting my arm.’

‘You could go to prison for what you did to my mother. Maybe you should.’

‘Please, Sadie, stop. I don’t want … Don’t make me go out there.’

There were the unmistakable sounds of a struggle, Mia sobbing in terror, shouting for Lottie, Sadie grunting with effort, saying, ‘It’s for the best, Mia. You know it is …’ Then, ‘I don’t want you threatening me any more … You did it to my mother. Now see how you like it,’ and then the terrible, heart-wrenching sound of Mia screaming before the call ended in an abrupt and deadly silence.

‘Jesus Christ,’ Cristy murmured, clasping her hands to her cheeks. Suspecting was one thing, being proved right another altogether.

‘I’ve never heard anything like that before,’ Clove practically wailed. ‘It was awful. Shit! I feel like I was there.’

Clearly still shaken, Connor said, ‘Maybe there is a God.’

Cristy looked at him.

‘I think we have the response to Sadie’s video,’ he explained.

See how you like it. The words kept going round in Cristy’s head, along with the horrific image of Mia’s final moments. That poor, demented woman, trapped for so many years in the guilt of what she’d done to an innocent girl; she was a murderer herself, but had she really deserved to die like that?

Had Janina?

It was making Cristy feel sick, and strangely exhausted, weighted by all the lies and deceit, the tragedy and the terrible, inexplicable fate that had bound them all together. The note Janina had tucked into her little girl’s pocket all those years ago … I know you are good people. Please take care of her until I can come back for her.

It was too tragic, too awful to think of what had happened when she had come back.

Janina and Sadie, Lottie and Mia. In a sane world they’d never have known one another; in that same sane world Sadie would never have been born. Lottie might have made a life with Robert. Mia might have found someone to love her in the end, and she, Cristy, might not be feeling so wretchedly, painfully mixed up about her own feelings for the girl who had never had the chance to know her mother. Being so close to her own daughter, and in no doubt about how much Janina had loved Sadie, it was tormenting Cristy to think of what Sadie had missed out on – and what was likely to happen to her now.

‘Cristy?’ Connor said quietly.

She looked up, saw his concern, and for one crazy moment she almost told Jacks to erase the call. In the end, because she had to, she made herself say, ‘We don’t have a choice, we need to send it to the police.’ She nodded to Jacks, an instruction for him to do the honours.

Out of nowhere she thought of Gabe and Lukas and found herself close to tears. This was going to be so devastating for them that she was already regretting bringing Sadie into their lives.

‘Why did she do it?’ she asked, barely above a whisper. ‘She had the journals … She was already using them to stop Mia changing her will, and yet she pushed her over anyway. Why? I don’t understand it.’

‘Because she’d had enough,’ Connor replied. ‘I’m sure that’s what she said. And if there was no more Mia, there would be no more threats, no more anything to stop her from getting – and doing – exactly what she wanted.’

Looking up from his computer, Jacks said, ‘It’s ready,’ and they all fell silent as they waited for Cristy to give the final instruction to press send.

She gave it and closed her eyes. Mia’s final moments, and Sadie’s fate, were now in the hands of Guernsey’s law enforcement officers – there was no going back.

*

Oddly, unnervingly, thirty or more hours passed with no word from anyone. The silence seemed to have a power all of its own, making them feel as though they were holding their breath, hardly daring to move, as they waited for something to happen.

‘Someone has to be in touch with us soon,’ Cristy remarked to David over a FaceTime call on Thursday evening. A whole week since Mia’s death that felt more like a year – and strangely like it had all been a bad dream.

‘There’s been a lot more police activity in the villa today,’ he said, ‘and around the cliffs below.’

Picturing it, wondering what they were hoping to find, she said, ‘They’re surely interviewing Sadie by now. Have you heard anything about that?’

‘No, but I do know that Victor Dubois has already told the police he had an appointment set up with Mia for Friday of this week – tomorrow in fact – to discuss a codicil to her will. So it’s possible she did mean to cut Sadie off if she refused to stay.’

‘I’m pretty sure that was behind it all,’ Cristy said.

‘Go on,’ he prompted.

‘We’ve wondered if Sadie was playing us right from the start – she lied about the pages, remember – but I think she really was just foolish where they were concerned. No, I’m certain everything changed for her when she read the journals to Mia and let rip with her fury. At some point then, or shortly after, she began to realize how useful the journals could be if she took out an injunction that she could hold over Mia. The journals – or the incriminating parts of them – would never be made public as long as Mia never changed her will. And it would probably have worked if Mia hadn’t gone ahead and threatened to cut her off again, as she did that night. Whether Sadie decided in that moment to put an end to the threats once and for all, or whether she went to the villa already knowing, even fearing what she was going to do … I guess only she knows. But whichever way you look at it, I’m sure, in the end, it was every bit as much about the money as it was about revenge.’

David audibly sucked in air as he considered her thoughts. Finally, he said, ‘I can see it, I only wish I couldn’t. Are you going to share this with the police?’

‘If I’m asked to, but I’m not sure they need anything from me now. The pocket-dial speaks for itself.’

‘That’s true. I don’t suppose Gabe or Lukas have been in touch since they sent the video?’

‘No, but I wouldn’t expect them to be.’

‘And the video’s lost all its power now anyway. Or it will once it’s known Sadie’s under investigation for murder.’

Glancing up as Aiden came into the flat, Cristy said, ‘My son has just turned up looking very wet and hungry so I’d better feed him. Are you still coming tomorrow?’

‘Of course. I should be in Bristol by six at the latest.’

‘Great. Jodi and Connor have invited us for a bite to eat, so maybe take a taxi straight there.’

*

By the time David arrived the following evening, there was still no word out of Guernsey, not from the police, nor Sadie and her family, nor any of David’s contacts.

‘You’d have thought someone would want to speak to us by now,’ Connor remarked, putting a drink in David’s hand as Cristy gave a pained look and pointed at the phone while mouthing, Matthew.

‘We’ve been discussing doing another pod,’ Connor continued, gesturing for David to sit down, ‘but we can’t use the phone call at this stage. Probably at any stage if it ends up being needed in court – and it obviously will be given everything’s going to swing on it. Jody’s upstairs with the baby, down any minute.’

‘Sounds like Dad’s got himself in another fuck-up,’ Aiden commented, glancing up from his homework to give David a wave of welcome. ‘Good to see you.’

‘You too,’ David responded.

Connor said, ‘Doesn’t feel right, leaving everything hanging like this, but unless there’s an arrest, better still a charge, we’ve got nowhere to go, nothing new to say. Series over. I don’t suppose Anna’s spoken to Sadie, by any chance?’

David shook his head. ‘She stopped taking Anna’s calls on Wednesday, and since Anna heard Mia’s message – I hope you don’t mind me sharing, I think we can trust her – she’s given up trying. I left another message with my contact at police HQ on the way here, but he either doesn’t know what’s going on, or he’s not in a position to tell me anything yet.’

‘You know what we keep wondering,’ Aiden piped up, ‘is whether or not Gabe and Lukas still believe Sadie’s story. You know, that Mia jumped.’

‘It’s a good question,’ David remarked. ‘I guess they do if they haven’t heard the phone call yet. If they have … Well, it’ll be very hard for them to take, that’s for sure.’ He looked at Cristy as she ended her call and closed her eyes in despair. ‘What is it?’ he asked carefully.

‘You’re never going to believe this,’ she groaned. ‘Matthew can’t take the baby out of LA. Something to do with when he was arrested after the birth … There has to be some sort of hearing before it can happen, and Marley has to be there, but she’s already in Santa Fe and is saying she can’t leave. So, wait for this, he wants me to fly over there so I can bring the baby out.’

David’s eyes widened.

‘Don’t worry, I told him I have no intention of being arrested for attempted kidnap, or anything like it, and there’s no guarantee that won’t happen, especially if he, Matthew, is with me. He’s suggesting we take different flights, but I’ve told him that he has to take a reality check and sort this out for himself, because I am going to Amanjena next week.’

‘Where?’ Aiden asked, all ears.

‘Morocco,’ David answered, still looking at Cristy. ‘That soon, huh?’

She shrugged. ‘Why not? If the police want to question me I’ll be just as contactable over there. Presuming we want to be, and maybe we don’t?’

‘Hang on,’ Aiden interrupted, ‘does this leave me going to LA to bail out Dad? I wouldn’t mind, I mean LA’s great, but I’m kind of busy right now with mocks and everything.’

‘Dad’s a grown-up,’ Cristy reminded him, ‘or he sometimes pretends to be, and so, as I said just now, he has to sort this out for himself.’

‘Cool. So who’s going to take care of me if you’re off to Morocco?’

Cristy regarded him askance. ‘You’re sixteen years old and you can cook.’

‘You’re also very welcome to stay here,’ Jodi told him, coming into the room. ‘So what have I missed?’

‘Dad’s up shit creek again,’ Aiden told her, ‘and Mum and David are planning some sort of romantic … Ah, here’s Dad now. Just knew he’d call me as soon as Mum knocked him back.’ He clicked to answer the phone. ‘Hey, my man, how’s it hanging with the Bear?’

As the others laughed, Cristy rolled her eyes and said to Connor, ‘Are you OK with me going away next week, presuming we can get into the Aman resort?’ she added to David.

‘We’ll try,’ he told her.

‘That’s fine,’ Connor replied, ‘you just leave all the police enquiries to me, not to mention working the press with Iz … She’ll probably want to hold my hand through every interview.’

Cristy grimaced. ‘You’re right, I shouldn’t just take off—’

‘He’s winding you up,’ Jodi broke in. ‘And anyway, isn’t it about time Clove and Jacks got some public recognition for all they do? So why not rope them in for some of the media gigs?’

‘We’re seeing Iz tomorrow,’ Cristy said, ‘so we can discuss it with her then. In principle I think it’s a great idea, although I think Clove might be more up for it than Jacks.’

‘Out of interest,’ Jodi said, curling into an armchair with a soda, ‘how much is Sadie likely to inherit if things happen to go her way?’

‘They can’t go her way,’ Connor objected. ‘It’s just not possible now – unless some clever bastard lawyer is managing to pull something out of the hat even as we speak and that’s why nothing seems to be happening.’

‘We can’t rule it out,’ David responded. ‘In fact, it’s highly likely.’ To Jodi, he said, ‘I don’t have any details, but it could be somewhere in the region of forty, even fifty million.’

‘Wow,’ Aiden gasped, as Jodi choked on her drink.

Cristy said, ‘Well, even if there is some clever bastard lawyer on the case who manages to get her out of a murder charge, at least the “Did she jump, or was she pushed?” isn’t going away any time soon. She’ll always have to live with that. Not that I’m vengeful, you understand, in fact I can’t make up my mind from one minute to the next how I feel about it all.’

She was about to go and sit with David when a text arrived on her phone. Presuming it was from Matthew now that he’d apparently finished talking to Aiden she clicked on, wishing she could just ignore him, while not quite having the heart to.

She saw right away that it was from a No Caller ID and as she read the message she started to turn cold. It couldn’t be. This was a new phone, almost no one had the number yet, and hadn’t they traced and stopped the stalker? It seemed not, because here he was saying, Hi Cristy, did you miss me? It’s lovely to see you again. Are you having a nice evening at Connor’s?

‘What is it?’ David asked, clearly sensing something was wrong.

She looked up, and seeing his concern quickly smiled. Now wasn’t the time to get into this. She’d forward it to Jacks in the morning. ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Just more unfinished business. The story of my life these days,’ she added with a pointed look at Aiden. He wasn’t listening.

Putting her phone aside she arched an eyebrow as she said to David, ‘Much more important right now, is there availability at the Amanjena?’

‘Looks like the earliest is for a fortnight from next Thursday,’ Aiden informed them.

They turned to look at him.

‘I’ve got it here,’ he explained, gesturing to his laptop. ‘This gaff is the business, Mum. Totally out there. They’ve only got suites – pavilions – with their own private pools – and, listen to this, one of them has two bedrooms with—’

‘And guess what,’ Cristy broke in quickly, knowing exactly where this was going, ‘you, my darling, won’t be in one of them.’

‘I’m not sure we will be either,’ David said, reading the message that had just come into his phone. He looked up. ‘It’s from my contact at police HQ. Apparently Sadie’s just been charged, so my guess is you guys will be busy doing other things next week.’