Again, Emer heard her mother’s voice.

We didn’t have a choice. The girls were there that night.

‘He’d have done it if my mother asked him to.’

Maeve started to say something, but Emer held her hand up.

‘Stop,’ she said. ‘Don’t ask me about it. I shouldn’t have said anything because I may have got it wrong. We shouldn’t talk about it until we know the facts. That’s why I need to see Dee.’

‘How are you going to do that? I assume you didn’t bring your passport with you?’

Good point. She’d brought nothing with her except her purse, her mobile phone and the clothes she’d been wearing.

‘I can go back and get my passport,’ she said. ‘And a change of clothes. My mother’s in Dublin for the weekend and Robert will be spending most of today at the golf club, like he does every Saturday.’

‘It’s nine thirty,’ Maeve said, checking her watch. ‘What time will he be heading to the golf course?’

‘Round about now.’

‘Okay.’ Maeve nodded. ‘You drive back home and pick up whatever you want. I’ll book the flights.’

‘Flights?’

‘That’s right. If you’re going to England, I’m coming with you. Don’t look so worried, Emer. I won’t intrude on your meeting with your cousin. I’m sure you’ll want to do that by yourself. But if Kitty really is alive, then I want to be there when you find her. Kitty’s my last connection with Lucy. She’s the only person who might be able to tell me what really happened to my sister.’

‘What about the hotel?’

‘The hotel will be fine without me for a few days. I’ve got a great team who are more than capable of running the place.’

‘Well, if you’re sure,’ Emer said, ‘it would be nice not to have to do this by myself. Thanks, Maeve.’

‘You don’t need to thank me. I’m doing this for myself, remember?’

‘Last night,’ Emer said, ‘right before Dee called, I’d decided to let it go. I was going to focus on getting my act together and trying to move forward with my life.’

‘You can’t move forward until you know the truth. Neither of us can do that.’

Before Emer could answer, Maeve’s phone started to ring.

‘A private number,’ she said, frowning. ‘Hang on a second. Let me see who this is.’

She walked away from Emer to take the call. While she was gone, three white swans appeared around the bend in the river, sailing grandly past as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

‘A journalist,’ Maeve said, when she came back. ‘He says he wants to speak to me about Lucy. Said he might have some new information about what happened to her.’