The shadow was moving. I could feel it passing over my skin till I was in the plain sun. Even then, a terrible cold wave swept over me, because I suddenly knew what David was getting at. Peter had been talking about me, about my mum, and how awful it had been for me, growing up like that. I could hear it, in my head, all the details, everything that David would be allergic to. He’d probably told him about Joe as well, creating intrigue, his voice full of drama, stringing it out for attention.

Joe could still come back. The feeling, when you opened the front door, when Joe was inside.

“Sent your mum to the shops. Now what you’ve been up to?” Joe was quick on his feet, the chair skidding across the kitchen, blocking the door before you could get back out.

I heard Peter leaning in to whisper the things he thought he knew. A sold-out, hollowed-out feeling.

“Pete wants to suck your cock. He’d tell you black was white if you let him. Are you going to let him?” I smiled, showing my teeth.

“Jealous?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

“I wasn’t talking about me. You know, they all do what you want all the time, because if they don’t, you’re a royal pain in the arse. Tiptoeing round you the whole time.”

“And you make people like you so they give you stuff. Or just to win them.” Saying it, I realized it was true. It was why Peter had no power over him, because he’d been so easily won.

David licked his lips, took a quick step forward, and then stopped. From a distance, a shout of triumph. Em’s voice.

“She’s found them again,” I said.

“Fuck.”

“But not the real ones. Not Mortimer’s ones.”

“No. Because I’m going to find those.” David said it lightly, but he meant it. It was what made the game real, what kept it going. David’s belief the diamonds were there and he would find them.

“Not if I do first,” I said.

In one of the tiny servant bedrooms, I found David peering out a dusty window. I stood in the doorway waiting for him to turn. But he didn’t, even though he must have heard me coming. I didn’t go in. I knew if I went in, something would happen.

I began to know where he was. I was listening for the diamonds, but it was David I heard. During the game, while we played, roaming the house and grounds, it came to be that I could feel where he was.