Freya is right to a degree. People always have the ability to shock. I see it with my clients all the time and have learnt not to take preconceptions in with me. Plus I only have to look at my own family. Yet Ange is one person I don’t think I’ll be wrong about.

‘Anyway, she might be able to give us something that can at least in part explain what happened on that freaky island or why Iona was there in the first place.’

‘Why do you think she was?’ I ask. I don’t mention what Dad told me about her looking for someone because I’m still not entirely sure I trust what he says.

Freya shrugs. ‘No idea. We moved there because our cousins were there and Mum thought she wanted that kind of life, but why do other people decide to move somewhere so remote?’ She spreads out her fingers and starts to count on them. ‘Work; or because they’re running from something. Or someone,’ she adds. ‘A nineteen-year-old girl on her own coming over to live on that island …’ she pauses ‘… there’s got to be a reason.’

I mull over the thought that Iona could have been running from someone.

‘Ange was insistent we meet in this pub,’ Freya says, peering out the cab window as the driver pulls up outside. ‘Apparently it does good food, though I don’t know what bar it’ll be set at.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not expecting much,’ I say quietly. ‘Balsall Heath sounds so familiar,’ I tell her as I climb out, looking around and then up at the red-brick pub that sits on the street corner. ‘But I don’t know why.’

I follow Freya closely as she swings open the heavy doors and marches in, totally unfazed by the look of the pub and its clientele. A row of men perch on stools along the bar. One of them glances over his shoulder but his body barely moves enough for him to see who’s come in. In the far corner a woman raises her head and looks at us questioningly, and when Freya lifts a hand she nods in return.

‘Who have you said I am?’ I whisper, grabbing Freya’s arm as she strides over. ‘Am I supposed to be working with you?’

‘She doesn’t know you’re coming. Tell her you were a friend of Iona’s if you like.’