Maria smiled despite herself. ‘I’ve told you the story before,’ she said. ‘We wanted to move away from Birmingham and have a different life. Your dad saw the ferry for sale and it was a perfect opportunity—’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know that story, but what’s the real one?’

‘That is the real one,’ Maria replied slowly. She glanced quickly at David, who’d appeared behind their daughter, a stack of plates laden in his hands.

‘You can both save the rehearsed speech. I’d hoped one of you might be honest with me,’ Bonnie snapped before storming out the room.

‘What was that about?’ David whispered to her. ‘You’re shaking.’

‘I just …’ She looked behind her to the door that Bonnie had just disappeared through. ‘I just have this feeling, David, that it’s going to come out.’

She had been right. It wouldn’t be long before it did come out. What she hadn’t been prepared for was the extent to which she would be betrayed.

PRESENT

Chapter Nineteen

I am in the police station waiting room by five to four. My stomach churns as I unsuccessfully try to focus on an old black-and-white film playing on a TV, my insides twisting themselves into knots which pull tighter with every breath.

By the time I am called through to see my brother, I feel like I will throw up, but I grab my bag and coat and follow Harwood down a corridor to a closed door at the far end. I wish I had someone else by my side, but the only person who should be here would never show even if I asked her. Besides, I couldn’t bring myself to even tell Bonnie I had willingly agreed to see our brother.

After eighteen years, I only have the pictures in my head of what Danny might look like and most of those, I realise, are simply a version of the twenty-two-year-old I last saw.

‘Ms Harvey? Are you okay?’ Harwood’s voice snaps me back to the present.

‘I don’t know what to expect,’ I admit. ‘I haven’t seen him in so long. Is he already in there?’ I gesture to the room that sits behind the door.

‘He is.’

‘Will you be with me?’

‘No, it’ll just be you and Danny. Are you still happy to do this?’

I nod faintly. For all the denials that plague me, the fact is my brother has told the police he pushed Iona over a cliff and potentially I have to accept this.