Engaged again.

And again.

He looked at his mum. ‘I’m going to go down and see if I can talk to Alice. If they have been seeing each other she might know where he is.’

Yvonne couldn’t become any paler, but she almost visibly stiffened her upper lip. ‘I suppose so.’ Then, quietly, ‘Thank you, Aaron.’

Aaron picked up his keys. ‘Is Dad on evening shift? I’ll walk you home so you’ll be with Aunt Norma, OK? Then I’ll come back to yours when I’ve been to the Roundhouse.’ He had high hopes of Clancy being there. He should have managed to make the scale of the situation clear to her before letting her hang up. What he’d said must’ve sounded like a brush-off.

‘I can walk home on my own. You just go ahead.’ Yvonne gave Aaron a hug. He clipped on Nelson’s lead, which made the dog look cheerful for the first time since all the human drama, and then he strode out of the door behind her.

Before long he found himself jogging, Nelson extending his stride like a little pony to keep up. Aaron was so keyed up by the time he reached the Roundhouse that he rang the doorbell and used his key to go in without waiting to see if he was welcome. Then he paused and stepped back to look out at the lane behind him.

Clancy’s blue BMW wasn’t there.

He hurried in to find Hugo eating a pie from a plate on his lap in front of the telly.

‘Is Clancy here? Or Alice?’ Aaron demanded, noticing that, behind Hugo, the phone hung from its wall holster, which would explain the constant engaged signal.

Hugo stared at him balefully. ‘What do you want with Alice?’

Aaron strode in, grabbed the TV remote from where it lay beside Hugo and switched off the set. Then he took Hugo’s plate off him and deposited it on a nearby table. ‘This is important!’ he snapped. ‘I need to talk to Alice.’

To his disbelief, Hugo’s face began to crumple. ‘Alice has left me,’ he said pathetically. ‘She’s packed up and gone.’

For several seconds, Aaron just stared at Hugo in horror. If Alice had gone and Lee and Daisy had gone … the obvious conclusion was that they’d all left together. Sooner or later, it would blow up in Lee’s face and who knew what would happen? Aaron dropped down into an armchair. ‘Shit.’ Then, with compunction, ‘Sorry, Hugo.’ He wasn’t sure if he was commiserating about Hugo being left or apologising for storming in.

‘Thank you,’ Hugo said morosely.

For a minute, Aaron’s thoughts were taken up with how he was going to break the news to his mother. Then they circled around. ‘I presume Clancy’s not here? I see her car’s gone.’

‘She got a phone call and went,’ Hugo replied.

Aaron rose. ‘I might be able to get her on her mobile if she’s left the village. Do you know where she’s gone?’