The door to their room had been thrown open with such force the handle slammed against the wall, cracking a hole in the plaster. The change of energy in the room had been enough to push Declan flat against the wall, without his da so much as taking a step inside.

‘Where would he go?’ his da shouted.

Declan had blinked, unable to find his voice, the fear weighing so heavy on his chest.

‘That spoiled wee shite of a brother of yours – and don’t tell me you don’t know, Declan Heaney, or believe me, it won’t just be him who feels the leather of my belt.’

His father may well have been slurring his words, but his intention was clear, and Declan was ashamed that he wasn’t brave enough to stand up to him.

‘The rezzie,’ he whispered.

‘Speak up!’ his da yelled and he had repeated himself, but louder this time.

When his da had stormed out of the room and out of the house afterwards, Declan had cried until he was sick.

He has carried the weight of that all of his life, he thinks as he sprints up Westway. He doesn’t want to carry any more guilt. Whatever happens at the country park, with Ingrid and his da and Niall, the one thing Declan knows is that he has to make sure of it that no one else is hurt.

As the wind pushes against him, doing its best to slow him down, he thinks of how he saw his da and one of his cronies – that fucking bastard Murray – walking back down the street later that night. The night Kelly died. They walked each side of a solemn and broken-looking Niall. He’d heard them come in the front door. He’d asked Niall if he was okay when he had come to bed, but Niall hadn’t replied. His brother had just climbed into bed.

The next day, when the news broke that Kelly was missing, Niall didn’t even flinch. He remembers that, how his brother just took another bite of toast under the gaze of their da, who sat at the breakfast table with a mug of coffee in hand.

When he’d found out about the bracelet, he’d been too scared to ask Niall about it. He had never dreamed, even after everything that happened, that Niall could’ve been involved. He couldn’t bear to think of his brother that way.

But everything in Niall changed then.

Declan pushes on, through the car park, where he sees both Ingrid’s and his da’s car – but both are empty. Ingrid and Niall, and presumably his da, are somewhere in the country park.