‘Cheryl, I’m sorry!’ Jenny stood quivering in the doorway. ‘I didn’t know where else to go! ’

Cheryl was uncharacteristically flustered. Her hennaed hair showed grey at the roots and her signature silver nail polish was chipped. ‘What’s happened?’ She made Jenny come in, sit down and accept a glass of wine.

Jenny sat tense on the edge of an armchair. ‘I can only stay for a minute. I need to get away.’

Cheryl wrinkled her brow. ‘Escape is always a short-term answer, what say we—’

‘No, Cheryl, please listen.’ Jenny hunched forward. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been lying to you and to Freddie and everyone. It’s my fault – everything that’s happened is my fault—’

‘What’s happened though? If we talk, maybe we’ll discover that it isn’t that bad after—’

‘Freddie’s dead.’

‘Oh my god!’ Cheryl sagged back against the cushions. ‘How?’

Jenny closed her eyes. ‘He was attacked, stabbed. I think’ – she forced the words out – ‘I think David did it.’

Cheryl, rarely silent, was silent as she struggled to comprehend Jenny’s words. Her make-up free face was pale and pockmarked as an ancient moon ‘Surely – I mean, the police? You have to call the police—’

‘I did. I’ve just come from there.’ Jenny took a sip of wine. ‘I told them everything. They’re going to arrest David, but I don’t want to be there when it happens. Freddie – he was always suspicious of David; he never liked him. I thought he was just… jealous. I even told him that. Then Freddie found all these things that David had kept – he’d been spying on me – stalking me for years. Freddie tried to warn me, but I thought that if I just talked to David… But David, he went crazy. Violent.’ She moved her hair further away from her face, to show her bruises. ‘He even hit me. Locked me in a room.’

Cheryl’s eyes widened. ‘Has he hit you before?’

Jenny fingered her cheek, hesitated, nodded. ‘A few times. Never before this last week though But, he’s ill, Cheryl. I always knew he was… anxious, but I didn’t think he was dangerous. I did what everyone does – I forgave him. I thought that I’d provoked it. And he was always so sorry, always so guilty that… Stupid… I thought I could help him, but…’

‘You’re staying here,’ Cheryl said stoutly. ‘And I’m calling the police. We have to make sure they’ve got him—’

‘No. Listen, I’m not making that mistake again. I’ve decided to go away somewhere where he can’t find me. Just in case he somehow… I mean, he won’t… but just in case he gets away from the police. He’s clever. He doesn’t know much about you, where you live, your full name, and I told him we fell out a few weeks ago.’

‘Why?’ Cheryl was puzzled.

Jenny gestured impatiently. ‘He’s been acting strangely for a long time. He was very jealous of you. I wanted to protect you, make sure he wouldn’t, I don’t know, show up at your office and cause a scene. So I lied and told him that he’d been right all along and you were this awful charlatan and I never wanted to see you again.’

Cheryl’s expression was an odd mixture of dazed and peevish. ‘You haven’t said anything about this before.’

‘Cheryl, there’s so much I haven’t told you, OK? I haven’t told anyone everything. Freddie knew more than anyone else, and look what happened to him? I can’t let anything happen to you too.’ She closed her eyes, took a breath. ‘I came to give you this.’ She handed Cheryl an A4 envelope full of paper. ‘I’ve made a kind of diary, written down some of the things he’s been doing. He looks at my computer and my phone, so writing was safer. Some of it might not make a lot of sense, some of it might sound crazy, but it’s the truth and I need you to keep it all safe. When I’m sure they’ve got him, I’ll come back, and give it all to the police.’ She hesitated. ‘And, if anything happens to me, take it to them yourself? OK?’ Her phone buzzed then, both women paled; Jenny peered at her phone. ‘No, it’s OK, it’s just the taxi saying they’re here.’

‘Where are you going?’

Jenny shrugged on her coat. ‘I’m not going to tell you, just in case. But I’ll call you when I get there, I promise. Be careful!’

‘You too!’ Cheryl replied weakly. She watched the younger woman hurry out of the door and into the waiting car. Then she bolted the door, poured herself a brandy, and sat down to read Jenny’s notes.