I woke all of a sudden, with a furry mouth and no clue what the time was. I’d been out for the count, as good as dead, and the only sign several hours had passed was the daylight through the window.

I’d forgotten to draw my curtains, something I haven’t often done since giving in to my father’s will. When I was little he’d never let me wake to natural light, sneaking into my room when I’d fallen asleep and shutting out the night, as if he knew better.

I sat up in bed. Oh curses! Toby had an illegitimate son. My chest expanded as I furiously inhaled and with the exhalation of resentful breath my shoulders slumped.

It’s like Antonia Codrington had warned me, ‘If you go for an older man who’s still single, Susie, you have to be aware they might have a past.’

Hearing about Tom, by the sounds of things a happy child whose parents get on, shouldn’t have made me as angry as it did. The fact was it had taken me by surprise and I’d overreacted. I could love someone else’s child, I knew I could. I just wish Toby had been open about it from the beginning.

I gazed out the window and thought about it from little Tom’s point of view. Although it goes against my religion, maybe Toby and Liz had been fairer on him by giving each other the chance of finding true love. I have a friend who got his girlfriend pregnant at university and did what I thought at the time was the right thing to do, he married her. But they’re now unhappy, they’ve fallen out of love and it’s not nice to see.

I stretched for my telephone. My goodness! It’s only five o’clock. I looked down at the duvet knowing there’s no way I could go back to sleep. I may have softened to Toby’s domestic situation but as immature as it seems, even to me, I now more than ever wanted to solve Hailey’s death and prove him wrong.

My eyes were crusty and as I cleared their corners with my fingers a startlingly bright ray of sunshine came sparkling through the window, reflecting off the white sheets, blinding my sight.

Every blink I took set off another blotch of black dancing around the room. I couldn’t cope. I shut my eyes, allowing the cells in my retina to recover in darkness and pulled my knees up to my chest in despair of the day to come.

My head began to throb and I blamed the duvet for being white. If it was a colour it would have absorbed some of the light rays but no, it’s not, and every single wavelength of light in the visible spectrum had bounced off it into my eyes.

I hugged my knees tighter and opened my eyes. The sun had disappeared behind a cloud and a great shadow cast over my room. It was dark and sinister, and riddled me with fear of ‘the end’. What will become of us when this life is over? Hailey’s eyes had shut the world out, leaving her in darkness never to wake again.

I needed to get up and out, go for a breather and inject life into my limbs before taking on the long journey home. My body was stiff, having lain comatose in sleep, and as I stood up slowly I knew exercise was all there was for it. I crossed the room in that way one does with a body that’s yet to loosen up. Rather similar to Archie’s yesterday I remembered.

Crickey! Cricket. Why hadn’t I thought about it before… lunch in the pavilion. No one had mentioned it, not even DCI Reynolds and Sergeant Ayari. Did this mean it hadn’t been searched?

I had to rush, right now. Get to the ground before the early morning dog walkers were out.

As quickly as possible, I got into my clothes and pulled on my trainers. No time spare to do up the laces. Not one bit of me was feeling jaded any more.

I grabbed the yellow Marigolds from the sink, stuffed a plastic bag into my pocket and bolted from the kitchen out of the door.