Her hand grips more tightly on to the wall, flakes of red brick crumbling beneath the pressure. ‘She was mistaken, but not for no good reason. You see, my baby wasn’t the only one taken to that island.’

I step back, my right foot tipping off the edge of the kerb.

‘There was another before mine. That’s how I knew it was safe.’

I shake my head, refusing to take in what she’s saying. My heart is like lead as it bangs heavily inside me.

‘Maybe your family isn’t innocent after all,’ she says, turning towards her front door. ‘Maybe you shouldn’t go running to the police either.’

‘Do you know?’ My voice breaks as the words catch in the air. ‘Do you know that for a fact?’

Ange pauses, one hand pressing a key into the lock.

My head is ringing, but finally Ange gives a small shake of her head and I have a momentary flutter of relief. She pushes the door open.

‘Ange, please,’ I cry, following her as she steps inside the house. ‘Who was your social worker?’

Her face is blank as she turns to close the door.

‘Was her name Joy? Please,’ I sob desperately, as she shuts it.

I sink back against the wall, burying my face in my hands, eyes focused through my fingertips on a man rummaging in a bin, pulling something out, tossing it back in again. Ange’s words make my thoughts scuttle around my head as aimlessly as his actions.

Iona got the wrong person.

Yes, my gran was a social worker, but she might not have been the same one.

They’re coincidences. Nothing more.

I close my eyes, breathing deeply, slowly, pulling my hands away as I tip my head to the sun which is shooting like an arrow through a slit in the clouds.

I will call Harwood. Tell him what I know.

Only what if I’m wrong? I close my eyes again, trying to shake away the thought.

If I talk to the detective I’ll be setting a whole new wheel in motion, and who knows what their investigations might turn up.

There is less than twenty-four hours until they could charge Danny with murder and maybe, just maybe, the only thing I can do to help my brother is to go back and dredge up the truth.

Evergreen Island

5 September 1993

Maria needed to seek Iona out. She wouldn’t let it fester any longer. The previous day Bonnie had come to her and uttered the words: ‘Is Iona my sister?’

She hadn’t confirmed where it had come from, but to Maria it seemed obvious Iona had put the thought in her head. And as Maria had seen her daughter in front of her, trembling, she knew it was time to confront the girl and find out once and for all what she thought she was doing.