‘And Layla sent him on that Friday night?’

Stanley nodded. ‘Jamie said he found out Layla had been catfishing him, using someone else’s photos. He called her right away and she told him she had to use fake photos because she had a stalker. But that everything else was real, just not the pictures.

‘Then she told him that her stalker had just messaged her, threatening to kill her tonight because he’d found out about her and Jamie being together. She told Jamie she didn’t know who her stalker was, but she’d narrowed it down to two men, and she was sure they’d go through with their threat. She said she would message them both and set up a meeting in a remote place, and then she asked Jamie to kill her stalker, before he killed her. She told him to say the words “Child Brunswick” to both men, and that her stalker would know what it meant, he would be the one to react.

‘Jamie told her he wouldn’t do it, at first. But she convinced him. In his mind it was either he do this or lose Layla forever, and it would be his fault. But he says at the moment he attacked me, he didn’t want to do it. Said he was actually relieved when I knocked the knife out of his hands.’

And Pip could see it all, played the scene through in her mind. ‘So, Jamie has spoken to Layla on the phone?’ she asked. ‘She’s definitely a woman?’

‘Yes,’ Stanley said. ‘But I still didn’t entirely trust him. I thought he still might be Layla and was lying to me so I’d let him out, and then he’d either kill me or tell. So after this conversation with Jamie – we talked most of Saturday night – we agreed a deal. We would work together to try to find out who Layla really was, if she wasn’t Jamie and did really exist. And when . . . if we found her, I would offer Layla money to keep my secret. And Jamie would keep my secret in exchange for me not telling the police he had attacked me. We agreed Jamie would stay there in the bathroom until we’d found Layla and I knew I could trust him. It’s hard for me to trust people.

‘And then the next morning when I’m at the Kilton Mail office, you come to see me about Jamie and I see all the missing posters up around town. So then I knew we had to find Layla quickly and work out a cover story for where Jamie had been, before you got too close. That’s what I was doing at the church that day, I was looking for Hillary F. Weiseman’s grave too, to see if it led me to Layla. I thought it would only take us a day or two, and everything would be fine, but we still don’t know who she is. I’ve listened to your episodes and know Layla messaged you. I knew then that it couldn’t be Jamie, that he was telling me the truth.’

‘I haven’t worked out who she is either,’ Pip said. ‘Or why she’s done this.’

‘I know why. She wants me dead,’ Stanley said, wiping one eye. ‘A lot of people want me dead. I’ve lived every day looking over my shoulder, waiting for something like this to happen. I just want to live. A quiet life, maybe do some good with it. And I know I’m not good, I haven’t been. Like the things I said about Sal Singh, the way I treated his family. When it was all happening, here where I lived, I looked at what Sal had done, what I thought he’d done, and I saw my dad. I saw a monster like him. And, I don’t know, it seemed a chance to make amends somehow. I was wrong, I was horribly wrong.’ Stanley wiped the other eye. ‘I know it’s not an excuse, but I haven’t grown up in the best places, around the best people. I learned everything from them, but I’m trying to unlearn all those things: those views, those ideas. Trying to be a better person. Because the worst thing I could be is anything like my dad. But people think I’m exactly like him, and I’ve always been terrified that they’re right.’

‘You aren’t like him,’ Pip said, taking a step forward. ‘You were just a child. Your father made you do those things. It wasn’t your fault.’

‘I could have told someone. I could have refused to help him.’ Stanley pulled at the skin on his knuckles. ‘He probably would have killed me, but at least those kids would have lived. And they would have made better lives than I’ve made of mine.’

‘It’s not over, Stanley,’ she said. ‘We can work together, find out who Layla is. Offer her money or whatever she wants. I won’t tell anyone who you are. Jamie won’t, either. You can stay here, in this life.’

A small glimmer of hope flashed across Stanley’s eyes.

‘Jamie is probably telling Ravi and Connor what happened right now and then –’

‘Wait, what?’ Stanley said, and in one blink, the hope was all gone. ‘Ravi and Connor are in my house right now?’

‘Um,’ she swallowed. ‘Yes. Sorry.’

‘Did they break a window?’

The answer was written on Pip’s silent face.

Stanley’s head dropped from his shoulders and he breathed out all his air in one go. ‘Then it’s already over. The windows are fitted with a silent alarm that alerts the local police station. They’ll be there in fifteen minutes.’ He drew one hand up, holding his face before it fell any further. ‘It’s over. Stanley Forbes is finished. Gone.’

Pip’s words staled in her mouth. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know, I was just trying to find Jamie.’

He looked up at her, attempted a weak smile. ‘It’s OK,’ he said quietly. ‘I never really deserved this life anyway. This town was always too good for me.’

‘I don—’ But the word never made it out of her mouth, crashing instead against her gritted teeth. She’d heard a noise, nearby. The sound of shuffling footsteps.

Stanley must have heard it too. He turned, walking backwards towards Pip.

‘Hello?’ a voice called down the hall.

Pip swallowed, forcing it down her throat. ‘Hello,’ she replied as whoever it was approached. They were just a shadow among shadows until they walked into the circle of light given off by the upward torch.

It was Charlie Green in a zipped-up jacket, a light smile on his face as his gaze landed on Pip.

‘Ah, I thought it must be you,’ he said. ‘I saw your car parked on the road and then I saw the light on in here and thought I should check. Are you alright?’ he said, eyes dropping to Stanley for just a moment before flicking back.

‘Oh, yes,’ Pip smiled. ‘Yes, we’re all fine here. Just talking.’

‘OK, good,’ Charlie said with an outward breath. ‘Actually, Pip, could I just borrow your phone quickly? Mine’s dead and I need to message Flora something.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ she said. ‘Yeah, sure.’ She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket, unlocked it and walked the few steps over to Charlie, offering it to him on her outstretched hand.

He picked it up, his fingers scratching lightly against her palm.

‘Thank you,’ he said, looking down at the screen as Pip walked back to where she’d been, beside Stanley. Charlie’s grip tightened around the phone. He lowered it, slipped it into his front pocket and pushed it down.

Pip watched him do it and she didn’t understand, she didn’t understand at all, and she couldn’t hear her thoughts because her heart was too loud.

‘Yours too,’ Charlie said, turning to Stanley now.