This morning, after breakfast, Emer had gone back to the house to try again. Before leaving the hotel, she’d written a note to put through the letterbox, giving ‘Annie’ her phone number and asking her to get in touch. When she arrived at the house, there was a car parked in the driveway – a cream-coloured Mini Clubman. But when she rang the doorbell and knocked on the front door, no one answered. Frustrated, she’d slipped the note through the letterbox and walked back to the village. She’d been passing the art gallery when she saw Dee walking into the coffee shop across the road.

‘We should leave,’ Maeve said, when Emer got back to the room and told her about seeing Dee. ‘If your cousin’s here, it’s only a matter of time before she sees you. There’s only so long you can hide in place this size.’

‘Go where?’ Emer asked.

‘Eastbourne,’ Maeve said. ‘There’s a nice hotel near Polegate – I looked it up while you were out. We can stay there without anyone noticing us, and get back here quickly if we have to. I’m going to look into hiring a car as well. Makes more sense than taking taxis everywhere.’

‘How much will the hotel cost?’ Emer said. ‘My money’s running out faster than I can spend it.’

‘I’ll pay for the hotel,’ Maeve said. ‘Really, it’s okay. What else am I going to spend my money on? My parents were loaded. I inherited everything when they died. If this woman really is Kitty, and she can tell me what happened to Lucy, then I’d happily spend every penny of my money trying to find her.’

‘Only if you let me pay you back when I’m working again,’ Emer said. ‘Make sure you keep track of everything you spend.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that,’ Maeve said. ‘Come on. Let’s pack up.’

‘You sure it wouldn’t it be better to stay here?’ Emer asked.

‘Cooped up in this room all day? No thanks. If Dee’s in Alfriston, that means we can’t even risk going downstairs and having a drink at the bar in case she comes in and finds us.’

‘So what if she does?’

Emer did her best not to sound annoyed, but it was difficult. Letting someone else take charge was harder than she’d expected. The fact that Maeve was now paying for everything didn’t help. It made Emer feel as if she had to go along with whatever Maeve wanted.

‘You can’t trust her,’ Maeve said. ‘I thought we agreed about that.’

‘You agreed about it,’ Emer said. ‘Dee’s never given me any reason not to trust her.’

‘Emer, she told you the most ridiculous story about meeting someone who was pretending to be you. Surely you don’t really believe that’s why she got in touch with you?’