On the last morning, I stayed till it was light. David walked me part of the way back. I had to go to the office to do the wages. I kissed him at the stile. When we drew apart, the wind dried the kiss on my lips.

When we touched each other, it was like we were drawing a map, a map of a place that we never spoke about. I wasn’t sure it was a safe place. There was far too much of me there.

Marcus picked me up in the van. Em and Peter were already inside. The day was dull, the light sluggish, and the wind damp. The hedgerows were going to seed. I yawned.

“Should go blackberrying later. Take some back for Mrs. East.”

Marcus’s hands were tight on the wheel. He drove fast, accelerating out of corners so Em and Peter slid about in the back. He slowed down as we came to the manor.

“It wasn’t like that yesterday,” he said. The front gate was open, the sign about guard dogs lay on the ground.

“What were you doing out here yesterday?”

I’d been in the office. In the evening Marcus and I had gone to the cinema in Swindon and then for pizza, a proper date like he’d wanted. When I thought about breaking up with him, it was Darren I worried about, not just the job, but that he wouldn’t think the same of me.

“I came past. On the way back from the Upham site.” Marcus swung the wheel round and we went in, through the gates and over the gravel that spat under the wheels.

An empty quiet met us. The front door was bolted from the inside, the back door locked.

“Where was Darren yesterday?” Em asked.

“He was in the office with me,” I said.

David had originally got in through the back, crawling in through a window that wasn’t latched properly. It was latched now. I called out for him. Em jogged down to the lake and back. There was no sign. We went back to the front steps. I kept my face blank.

“He’s got our numbers. He can call.” Marcus was worrying a bit of crumbling stone with the toe of his boot. The tips of his ears were red.

“But what happened?” I said.

Em shrugged. Peter was perched on the steps in his black coat, like a crow. “Maybe he got what he came for.”

“Meaning?”

He unfolded himself, turning his back on me to look at the house. He sounded bored.

“I mean the necklace, Andy. What else?”