‘Yeah, Dad. Yeah, I know the truth now.’

‘You feel better for it, do you?’

‘No, you’re right, I don’t. But that’s not the point.’

‘What is the point, then?’

‘That I grew up thinking the river killed him.’

‘Does it make any difference now you know otherwise?’

‘No. I mean, yes. Yes, it does.’ Abbott stood abruptly, angrily. He saw fear flare in his father’s eyes, which was enough to settle him a little, reminding him to take things gently. ‘It means that I grew up thinking things were different to the way they really were. It means that I thought the river took him when a man took him. I always thought that if I’d tried harder, I could have saved him, but it turns out that had nothing to do with how he died.’

‘But we knew that, son,’ insisted his father. ‘We knew you was riddled with guilt over it all. Why make it worse by telling you that Chris had been delivered into the hands of a nonce?’

‘But I grew up thinking that we never knew for sure what had happened to him, when we did. Or everyone else did. Everyone else but me. I grew up with a lie, Dad.’

His dad was shaking his head. ‘We never saw it like that. We didn’t see it like lying. We saw it as keeping you safe. We wanted to prevent you from a lifelong feeling of hatred for a man you’ve never met and never will. I can see now that you reckon we did the wrong thing, but you’ll know when that boy of yours gets older. You’ll know that as a parent you don’t always make the right decisions. You just make the decisions you think are right at the time. You make the decisions you think’ll cause the least hurt.’