He didn’t want to approach her. Not while she was wielding a hammer. He could only imagine the damage she might do to him if she thought he was an attacker. Or, worse, her husband coming back for round two.

Instead, he grabbed a piece of broken plywood and launched it gently in her direction. It collided with her left leg, and she spun on the spot, brandishing the hammer in both hands, ready and willing to use it. As soon as she recognised Tomek, the tension in her body released and she lowered the object to her side. Before saying anything, she rushed over to the speaker and switched off the music.

‘Tomek,’ she said, sauntering towards him, brushing the hair out of her eyes. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to come anywhere near you, not while you’ve got that in your hand.’

Rose looked down at the hammer, then set it on a toolbox.

‘Have you come to help?’

‘Not really,’ he said. ‘This type of thing’s never been for me. My dad used to build houses for a living, had his own construction company, so this is right up his street.’

‘Should invite him over. Maybe he could give me a hand.’

‘I’ll see if he’s about.’ Tomek placed his hands on his hips and surveyed the room. In the day since he’d last been there, Rose had managed to gut the kitchen entirely, and tear down a wall that connected it with the living room, leaving a nice, open-plan space. ‘You’ve been busy.’

‘I’ve been through a lot,’ she answered. ‘Turns out destroying stuff is good for the soul and the immune system.’

Tomek chuckled.

‘Are you here to compliment my work?’

‘No.’

‘If you haven’t come here to help,’ she started, ‘and if you haven’t come here to compliment my work, then what have you come here for?’

‘It’s about Johnny.’

At the mention of her husband’s name, the joy in her face fled.

‘Oh.’

‘We’ve charged him with Angelica’s murder and attempted murder on yourself this afternoon. He’s being sent to HMP Chelmsford, where he’ll be on remand until the trial. We don’t have a date yet, but I imagine you’ll be expected to appear in court, especially after what he did to you.’

Rose grabbed a towel from the toolbox and began wiping her hands. Then, without saying anything, she turned her back on him and moved into the kitchen area. Tomek followed her. To his right, he spotted a massive hole in the wall.

‘Did you fall through by accident?’ he joked.

Rose pointed to a sledgehammer on the other side of the kitchen floor. ‘No, but that bad boy did.’

Standing in what had once been the doorway, Tomek observed the rest of the skeleton of the kitchen. Brown circles littered the floor from spillages over the years. Wires and cables protruded from the walls in the place where the oven and washing machine had once stood. Tools and debris littered the linoleum floor, and there was a large box on the other side of the kitchen.

Rose dropped her towel onto it. Tomek watched it fall onto the box, and then immediately wished he hadn’t.

There, hiding beneath the towel, was an item that gave him cause to hold his breath: a welder’s mask and black coveralls. The outfit of the mysterious woman from The Nights of Eden parties. The outfit of the woman that Angelica had spent several nights with. The woman who had taken her from Emilia Solveig. Beneath, protruding from the material, was something Tomek recognised instantly. Another invitation from Micky Tatton to The Nights of Eden. Addressed to Angelica.

Tomek opened his mouth, but stuttered.

‘Everything all right?’ Rose asked.

He stumbled. In his pocket, his phone began to vibrate.

‘You…’ His thoughts were running away with themselves. ‘You said… You said the bathroom was finished? Is it all right if I use it?’

‘You haven’t even offered me a drink yet,’ she replied.

‘Ha. Sorry. I…’

‘Of course you can. Do you think you can find it?’

The phone stopped ringing.

‘Yeah, I should manage.’

Slowly, Tomek shuffled out. As he made his way towards the bathroom, the room, the walls, the floor had all become black, merging into one. His head felt dizzy, light. His pulse pounded in his ears, and for a moment he thought Rose had put the music back on. He felt like he’d been yanked from his body, his limbs moving freely and independently of one another, like he wasn’t at the helm.

Eventually, after what had felt like the longest walk in the world, Tomek entered the bathroom and shut the door behind him. She was right. The bathroom was finished. The white tiles on the floor, the porcelain toilet and sink sitting next to one another, the window above it, the bath wedged into the corner, the wicker storage unit in the other corner. It was like stepping into another world. A world that confused and disoriented Tomek further.

Then his phone rang again, pulling him from his thoughts.

He pulled it out and answered.

‘It was Rose,’ Chey shouted in his ear. ‘Rose was the one posting on Angelica’s blog from the library. You have to get out of there now. Uniform is on the way.’

Just as Tomek was about to respond, he heard the sound of a door closing.

The front door.

She was escaping!

Tomek chucked his phone into his pocket and threw open the bathroom door.

The light bouncing off the metal hammerhead caught his eye first, and he reacted instinctively, ducking beneath the swing, avoiding the fatal blow to the skull. Rose, wearing her welder’s mask, roared as she raised the hammer to bring it down on him again. But he was too quick for her. He reached up for it, grabbed her, and then launched it away from them. The metal tool cascaded through the air and crashed into the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom, creating a large hole. Beneath his grip, Rose used her other hand to punch and claw at his ribs and face. She was surprisingly strong, and her nails tore through the skin on his cheek and neck. Reluctantly, Tomek released his grip on her arm, and as he let go, she wrapped both arms around him and pushed him backwards, nails digging into his flesh. Before he knew it, he was in the bathtub, bashing the back of his head against the wall. Then Rose turned on the water. The stream of water disoriented him, choking him. She held his head under for a few seconds before turning and sprinting away. Using his hands, blinded by the water in his eyes, Tomek found a grip on the side of the tub and pulled himself out. Rose was trying to make a run for it, but Tomek had other plans. He reached out a hand, grabbed her coveralls, wrapped his arms around her waist, encasing her in a bear hug, and lifted her feet off the ground. Rose’s arms and legs flailed in the air. Then they caught a purchase on the toilet, and using all the strength in her legs, she pushed him backwards. Together, looking like they were in a scene from Titanic, they stumbled backwards, Tomek’s upper back crashing into the drywall, carving a large hole. As he fell to the floor, winded and stunned, they were showered in drywall and paint chippings, Rose clambered off him and started towards the exit.

Coming to, his hands running across the floor’s surface, he found the hammer. Wrapping his fingers around its hilt, he raised it, took aim, and launched it. The hammer somersaulted through the air until it came into contact with the back of Rose’s head and sent her flying into the sink, which crashed under her weight. As her body fell to the floor, the water burst from within the sink and began spraying into the air, quickly covering the floor and walls. Within a few seconds, Tomek caught his breath and staggered towards her on all fours. First, he grabbed the hammer and chucked it into the living room, then he rolled her body over and felt for a pulse.

She was alive. Breathing, but unconscious.

Tomek collapsed to the floor, resting against the side of the bath, as the water from the broken sink pipe continued to douse him. He sat there for a few moments, catching his breath, panting. He turned to look at the destruction their altercation had caused. The broken porcelain on the floor. The puddle of blood from the wound to the back of Rose’s head mixing and swirling with the rising water level. The hammer, covered in debris from the drywall behind him. And then he saw it, glistening beneath the light.

Slowly, he clambered to his feet and stepped towards it, holding his ribs and massaging the side of his face.

In the assault, Tomek had gouged a massive hole into the drywall beside the bathtub, and buried inside it was a large plastic Ziplock bag. He pulled it out and observed the contents. Inside were the dress and underwear Angelica had been wearing on the night she’d died. Her mobile phone. A twelve-inch dildo that had been used to rape her. A white angel costume and a pair of wings. A paintbrush still covered in blood. A long, thin plastic tube, and a large tin of paint, covered in dried blood.

Evidence of the murder that had taken place here.

Evidence that Rose had killed Angelica, presumably in this very room, drained her body of blood, raped her, cleansed her, then applied a layer of make-up to her face.