I fumble my way back inside the house, hot blood racing through my veins. Someone must have seen Joe setting up the camera last night. Are they out there now? Watching me? Laughing? I stand in the narrow hallway, take my phone out of my bag and call Joe. He answers straight away.

‘Hey.’ He sounds out of breath.

‘Joe, did you take the camera out of the plant pot?’

‘Take the camera out? No. Why?’

‘It’s not there. It’s gone.’ With my fingertips, I press at the scratches by my hairline. They’re beginning to itch as they tighten and scab over.

‘What do you mean gone?’ Joe cries. ‘I set it up last night. It’s there, hidden under the leaves.’

‘Not any more. Did you check on it this morning?’

‘No, I was half asleep. You know what I’m like first thing – Zombie, Dawn of the Dead.’

‘That means it could have been stolen any time. Either last night or early this morning.’

Joe growls down the phone. ‘I thought I was being careful, but someone must have seen me setting it up. Do you think it was kids?’

‘No. It has to be the person sending the letters.’

There’s silence at the end of the line.

‘Joe? You there?’ I sit on one of the lower steps of the staircase, stare at the grubby paintwork on the wall.

‘You’re probably right,’ he says. ‘But I didn’t want to mention them. Didn’t want to freak you out. Do you really think they were watching?’

‘I don’t know. Seems likely.’ I pause. ‘They left me another message.’

‘WHAT? Why didn’t you say anything?’

‘I’m telling you now.’

‘Are you okay, Lizzy? What did the message say?’

I open my mouth to tell him, but the thought of saying the words aloud makes my stomach churn. Tears well up behind my eyes.

‘Lizzy? You all right?’

‘Not really. What am I going to do, Joe?’

‘Did they threaten you?’

‘The…’ I take a breath. ‘The message admitted that they pushed me into the traffic yesterday.’

‘Shit! That’s…’ Joe exhales. ‘That’s not good, Lizzy. That’s not good at all.’

‘I know.’ My voice wobbles, but I manage to keep it together.

‘I’m coming home.’

‘No, Joe. It’s fine. Don’t.’ I can’t deal with Joe’s macho overprotectiveness at the moment. I love that he cares about me so much, but when he’s too concerned it makes me emotional.

‘Go and sit down with Frank,’ he says. ‘I’m calling the police.’

‘I can call them, it’s okay.’

‘Just let me call them for you. I’ll tell them they need to get there ASAP.’

‘Okay, Joe, thank you.’

‘And I’m coming home, too.’

‘No, honestly. I’ll be fine. There’s no need for you to come home.’ I want to be strong when the police get here so that I can speak to them rationally about what’s happening. I don’t want to be a blubbering mess. And I don’t want Joe throwing his weight around either, demanding results from Llewellyn and Ryan. That’s only going to piss them off. ‘Look, I’ll ring you after they’ve been.’

‘I want to be with you, Lizzy. I can hear how upset you are.’

‘Honestly, please don’t worry. I’m okay,’ I lie. ‘I’ll call you after I’ve spoken to them.’

‘I’m not happy about you being there on your own. I mean, someone tried to…’ His voice trails off, but I know what he was going to say – that someone tried to kill me.

Finally, I persuade Joe to stay at work. But we agree that he will ring the police for me. They know who I am and what’s been happening, so at least he won’t have to go into the whole backstory of the past few days.

I get up and gaze around the hallway, not really seeing anything. As I wait for the police to arrive, it feels like I’m hiding, cowering in this place that is starting to feel unfamiliar. My cosy cottage isn’t a safe space any more. My stalker has admitted they’ve tried to hurt me once, so surely it’s only a matter of time before they do it again.

My teeth are chattering and my right leg has begun to twitch involuntarily like it has a life of its own. I don’t know what to do. Should I go into the lounge? Into the kitchen? Upstairs? I end up doing none of those things, instead sinking down onto the hall floor and leaning back against the wall. Frank struts out of the lounge and sits by my side like a guard dog while I stroke his head absent-mindedly.

When the doorbell rings, I have to shake myself out of my stupor. I heave myself off the floor and pick Frank up so he doesn’t run out through the front door when I open it. I’m pretty sure it must be the police at the door, but I’m not taking any chances. I pop into the lounge and peer through the window to double-check, relaxing my shoulders when I spy the familiar figures of Llewellyn and Ryan standing on the doorstep. I see more of them than of Joe these days.

‘Hello, Lizzy,’ Llewellyn says as I open the door. ‘So sorry to hear about what happened to you yesterday.’

Ryan is staring at my swollen cheek. He gives an embarrassed smile when I catch his eye.

‘Come in,’ I say.

‘Such a cute cat,’ Llewellyn says, scratching behind one of Frank’s ears. Once she’s closed the front door behind her, I set Frank down on the floor and he trots off into the kitchen, obviously not in a sociable mood this morning.

The officers follow me through to the lounge, where I gesture to them to sit down on the sofa. I perch on the arm of one of the chairs, not sure where to start with my story. But Llewellyn speaks first.

‘We got all the info from Bristol. I wanted to come round and see you yesterday, but we were kept busy last night with various other things, unfortunately.’

‘That’s okay,’ I reply. ‘I’m not badly hurt, just a bit shaken up. Actually, a lot shaken up.’ My voice cracks.

‘’Course you are,’ she says. ‘Must have been scary.’

‘And you think you were pushed?’ Ryan asks.

‘Actually, I know I was.’

‘The information we received said you weren’t sure,’ Ryan says, looking down at his notebook. ‘The report says it may have been deliberate or someone may have accidentally knocked into you.’

‘That’s what I thought before today.’

‘You mean the latest letter?’ Ryan asks.

I nod. ‘Not a letter, though. More like a message.’ I stand up. ‘Come outside and I’ll show you.’

I take the officers out to my car and point through the window to the air freshener still hanging from the rear-view mirror. ‘Someone broke into my car and they put that there.’

‘What does the message say?’ she asks, peering through the glass.

‘I’ll show you.’ I go to open the door but Llewellyn puts a hand out to stop me.

‘If you could just tell me what it says. I don’t want to go messing up a potential crime scene.’

I swallow, and just about manage to force out the words. ‘It says: Shame that car missed you yesterday.’

‘Nice,’ Ryan says. ‘Sounds like we’re dealing with a right charmer.’

‘Okay,’ Llewellyn says, pulling a mobile phone out of one of her pockets, ‘I’m going to get CSI down here to do a thorough check of the vehicle.’ Her phone call connects and she walks a little way up the street to have her conversation. A minute later, she’s back. ‘Shall we go inside to wait for them to arrive?’

I nod. ‘Okay. Actually, there’s something else I need to tell you anyway.’

Back in the lounge, I explain how I went into Bristol to buy a security camera. I leave out the part about meeting Nas, as it feels kind of rude to tell them I was trying to hire a PI when the police are already working on my case. My mobile phone buzzes out in the hall, but I ignore it. It’s probably Joe texting to see how I am.

‘My boyfriend set up the camera last night,’ I say.

‘Have you looked at the footage this morning?’ Ryan asks.

‘That’s just it,’ I reply. ‘After finding the message in my car earlier, I came straight home to get the camera in case it recorded anything. But it was gone. Someone’s taken it.’

‘Where did you place the camera?’ Llewellyn asks.

I lead the officers back outside and show them the plant pot. ‘Joe hid it under the leaves.’

‘Okay,’ Llewellyn says. ‘We’ll ask CSI to take a look at this area while they’re here.’

Back inside, my phone is vibrating angrily on the hall table.

‘Do you want to get that?’ Llewellyn asks.

‘Maybe I’d better, in case it’s important.’ As soon as I reach to pick it up, it stops buzzing. I gesture to the officers to go back into the lounge while I quickly check my messages.

Shit. I have six missed calls from Pippa, along with a bunch of texts. I check the time and realise I’m almost an hour late for work. Pippa has no keys, so she’s been waiting outside the shop for me. Her latest voicemail says she hopes I’m okay, and that she’s gone into Clare’s Coffee Shop to wait.

I tap out a quick text to say I should be there within the next half hour. But I realise that’s probably optimistic. I feel terrible for leaving the shop closed, but I reason that I’ll explain everything to George when he gets back. Hopefully he’ll understand. If he wants, he can dock any loss of earnings from my salary.

Can today get any worse?