But it was too late. I’d seen what it was: a photo of the crash’s aftermath. A tangle of mutilated metal, suitcases and bags littering the dark and shiny road. Someone’s shoes, a high-heeled pair of shoes right in the forefront, as if the owner had just slipped them off to dance barefoot in the rain. The edge of an ambulance, its fluorescent lights flashing. Two firemen walking out of shot, one behind the other, both with heads bowed. And there in the corner of the photo, unmistakable, jutting out as if in a horror film, a pair of stockinged feet, belonging to a body. A body under a blanket, but a body nonetheless.

‘I think you should go now.’ I slumped down at the table. ‘I really don’t want to look at that. I don’t understand why you brought it round. Where did you get it?’ I glanced up at her. ‘Is it some kind of joke? Some kind of sick joke?’

‘No, really, Maggie, it’s not.’ She held her coat tight around her now. ‘I’m sorry, you know? I just thought – my group that I’ve been meeting with, they said it would bring closure. It’s, like, dealing with the reality. Like that man said on the show.’

‘That man?’

‘That doctor. He gave me his book.’

‘Fernandez? That quack, you mean?’

‘Look, I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t think you’d get upset.’

I bit my tongue. She looked so genuinely downcast, so terribly young and naïve, that my heart softened a fraction. ‘Fay, it’s fine. It’s just – it’s not for me, okay? If it helps you, well, that’s – that’s great, I guess.’

‘It’s just – well, you helped me. So I wanted to help you.’ She gazed at me with those eyes.

I tried not to squirm. ‘Well, thanks for the thought.’

‘That’s a nice little cottage.’ She pointed to the photo on the wall behind me. ‘Very pretty.’

‘Look, Fay –’

‘Where is it? Somewhere by the sea, I’ll bet.’

‘North Cornwall. It was my grandmother’s.’

‘The one in the home?’

‘Yes. She – I sort of own it now.’

‘Wow. Lucky you.’

‘Yes, I know.’

‘I think I’d better go now anyway. Troy’s waiting for me.’

‘That’s nice.’

She put the picture carefully back in the envelope, smoothing the flap down. ‘Though we are – well, there are still problems, you know. With me and Troy. I’m not sure we can – what’s the word? – surmount them.’

Dr Fernandez’s voice echoed through the room again. I smiled despite myself. ‘I’m sorry, Fay. I’m sure you’ll do the right thing.’

‘Are you?’ She was suddenly enthused, stepping nearer to me now. ‘What do you think that is, Maggie? The right thing?’

I thought of Alex.

‘Oh, Fay. I wish I knew, honestly.’

‘Please, just tell me what you think.’