‘It’s all right, Anton,’ Leah tells him. ‘We’ve found the key.’

But Anton is not looking at her. He’s looking at the other face turned up to him, feels the shake start in his hands, the surge in agitation. All this time. All these years. Hair brightly coloured. The angle of her head, poised and still. Those pale eyes fixed and steady, avid yet imperious, gazing up at him like a cat.

Hilary.

Her voice cracks through the white noise that fills his head. ‘Hello, Anton,’ she says.

11

Hilary

Hilary waits until she is past the railings before breaking into a run. The dog, confused by the sudden change in tempo, reacts with enthusiasm, bounding forward, pulling Hilary with her. Crossing the road, her heart pounding high in her chest, she feels the breath catching in her throat as she reaches her house. Her hand shakes as she presses the key into the lock.

She pushes through the front door, hastily shutting it behind her. Mona circles Greg’s legs as he emerges from the kitchen.

‘Nice walk?’ he asks her.

She forces a smile and a nod, moves past him to hang the lead on its hook, hears her voice emerging from her throat to say: ‘I bumped into that young woman who’s just moved in down the street – Leah. She was locked out of the flat, panicking because of the little boy alone inside. Then I remembered about the key that was hidden outside when we lived there. Well, it was still under that rock.’

‘Really.’

‘Yes! A little rusty, but it still works.’

‘You’d think they’d have had the locks changed since.’

‘I know. But she got in. And she was very grateful. Poor thing, worrying herself sick over the child. And all the time he was fast asleep in his room!’

It’s amazing to her how normal she sounds. As if nothing had happened.

‘Did you go inside?’ Greg asks, something strained in his voice.

‘Just for a minute. I didn’t stay. She was a bit flustered.’

He stands there, as if waiting for something.

‘Think I’ll have a shower,’ she says then. ‘I’m all hot and sticky.’

Greg says, ‘Okey-dokey,’ and she can feel him watching her as she runs up the stairs.

In the bathroom, she stands with her back to the tiled wall, listens to the slam of the fridge door downstairs in the kitchen, Mona’s cheerful yelp as Greg fixes her dinner. She thinks of what just happened, remembers the words she spoke to that woman. ‘I feel it my duty to tell you, dear …’ God, had she really said that? The look in her eyes, the way they had widened with horror and then disbelief. ‘It can’t be true,’ Leah had actually said, and a tremble of unexpected anger had quivered under Hilary’s skin.