He lunged at it with such force that Iona lost her footing, stumbling backwards. He didn’t notice in the dark how close she was to the edge as he reached out again, knocking into her, and then suddenly, she wasn’t there.

Maria didn’t move. It felt like an eternity that she stood rooted to the spot but in reality it was probably no more than three seconds. ‘Oh my God. Oh God,’ she finally muttered, running forward, peering over the edge of the cliff as she flashed her light on the beach below.

Beside her Danny was whimpering loudly. ‘Is she dead?’

‘No, shush,’ Maria replied, pulling back to look at her son. His eyes danced with fear as he hopped from one foot to the other. ‘No, of course she isn’t dead.’

God, how Maria hoped she wasn’t. She wasn’t moving. Maria looked back over her shoulder, but from here she could no longer see the girl. As Danny continued to bounce nervously in front of her she knew she couldn’t check while he was with her.

‘Tell you what, let’s get you home and then I’ll come back to make sure she’s alright. And I’ll get your book,’ Maria added as she led him away, all the time glancing behind her as if she expected Iona to suddenly appear.

Danny was surprisingly obliging. She deposited him at the kitchen door and told him to go to bed and that she wouldn’t be long. She hated leaving him so traumatised but she had no choice.

As soon as Maria got back to the small slip of beach she saw Iona’s body lying on the sand. Only she quickly noticed there was someone crouching beside her. Maria’s heart must have stopped for she could no longer feel its beat.

She slowly stepped forward until the person looked up, their face ghostly white against the moonlight.

‘Annie?’ Maria breathed out.

‘She’s dead,’ Annie whispered. ‘Do you know what happened?’

‘Oh, Annie.’ Maria collapsed next to her. How was she going to explain what she was doing running along the beach so late at night? She couldn’t think of any good reason why she’d be there.

She couldn’t pretend she knew nothing about it. Not to Annie who’d always been so fiercely loyal to her. And thank God it was her on the beach. There was nothing her dear friend wouldn’t do for her.

But she couldn’t tell her the truth.

‘We had an argument at the top of the cliff,’ she blurted. ‘It was an accident, but I—’

‘You did?’ Annie said, her eyes wide.

It looked like she didn’t believe her, but Maria was sticking to that story. ‘I didn’t mean to,’ she insisted.

‘No, no, my dear. Of course you didn’t.’