‘Give me a chance,’ I mutter, putting my cup down, tea slopping over the rim and on to the coffee table. When I open the door two men are standing the other side, one tall with closely shaven hair, the other at least a head shorter.

‘Miss Stella Harvey?’ the taller one asks. ‘I’m PC Walton and this is my colleague, PC Killner. Nothing to worry about, we’d just like to talk to you about an incident you may have heard of on the news. We’re hoping we can come in and ask a few questions.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I say, shaking my head, but at the same time stepping aside so they can enter my narrow hallway. ‘Why do you want to ask me questions?’

‘We’re talking to everyone who’s lived on Evergreen, but like I said, it’s nothing to worry about,’ he assures me as they both walk forward and stop at the point where you can either go left into my small kitchen or right into the living room.

I gesture to the latter where there’s more room for us to sit but don’t think to offer them a drink as I perch awkwardly on the edge of Mum’s old rocking chair. ‘I lived there a long time ago,’ I say. ‘We left in 1993.’

PC Killner nods as he pulls out a notebook and clicks a pen. He traces his finger along his notes and then looks up at me. ‘And could you confirm when you moved there, Miss Harvey?’

‘I was born there,’ I tell him. ‘In 1982. My parents arrived in …’ I pause and think back. ‘It was ’76 or ’77. My sister was a baby.’

He nods again and glances down.

‘Why?’ I ask, shuffling forward until I’m nearly falling off the edge of the chair. ‘I mean, it was so long ago, I don’t understand how this could help you.’

Walton smiles. ‘Routine procedure.’

‘But it was ages ago,’ I repeat, trying to work out what it means. Do they think the body has been there years? Do they want to talk to me because I was living there at the time it was buried?

‘I know.’ He smiles again. ‘And we realise you were young when you left, Miss Harvey, but we’d like to gather some information and then we’ll be on our way. I don’t intend taking up much of your time.’

I purse my lips, pushing myself back until I can feel a small cushion pressing into the base of my spine. My heart flutters, threatening to race, but Walton’s smile seems genuinely warm and I remind myself there’s nothing I know about the body.