“After the shoot, after I got hit by those pellets, I went over to see her. Promised I was going to leave you. Promised me and her could give it a proper go. Won her round. That’s why I wanted to go to the manor when those pricks asked us. What Em and I had was normal. It was how people are supposed to feel. You and me, the way I felt about you, it was a fucking disease. But I never hit you, did I?”

“No, not once.”

“But I hit her—just that one time.”

“Peter said to ask you about Mrs. Duncan.”

“Surprised he remembers that,” Marcus said slowly.

“Remembers what?”

“We bumped into her once. Me and Pete. I’d bought another necklace from that charity shop she worked in, just like the first. She was asking me if my girlfriend had liked it, and I tried to pretend I didn’t know what she was on about.

“I wanted to get rid of David that summer. Knew if he thought we’d found the real ones, he’d be off quick smart with them, and you’d see him for what he was. I hid the second necklace. The statue of Athena. But he was gone before we could play and I forgot all about them. Only he did find them, three fucking years later. Em knew they weren’t the ones she hid. At first, she said she thought David had moved them. But then later, she went back and fetched our diamonds from the fountain where she’d put them. The icicles, remember? That’s where they were. So now there’s two sets. Everyone had gone to bed and she came to me. Excited. Eyes shining. Thinking we might have found the real ones. I had to tell her, only I hadn’t told her before. At first she was just disappointed but then she was angry. She got it in her head I was hiding things from her, not being straight. She said she’d had enough. Took it as a sign. I said I’d leave you, but I’d said it before. Half the night. Going round and round. We’d all been drinking, hadn’t we?”

“For a while, I thought it was Peter. I thought Peter … maybe he thought it was me. She was wearing my coat. It was dark.”