I am glad Meg’s not there and I don’t have to swap pleasantries with the stranger behind the counter as I focus on what I need to do. As soon as my mobile picks up the WiFi, I see there are sixteen missed calls from my sister. My heart beats rapidly as I dial her number.

‘Finally!’ she screams when she answers. ‘Do you have any idea—?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I say quietly. ‘There’s no reception here at all and—’

‘You could have called me as soon as you knew. Not let me see it on the news,’ she shouts.

‘Bon, I’ve only just found out. I came straight back to the café so I could speak to you. They must have aired it immediately.’ Silence. ‘Bonnie?’ I say.

‘It’s Iona,’ she says finally. ‘I mean, shit, Stella.’

‘I know,’ I murmur. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘She was the only friend I had on that God-awful island. Who would kill her?’ she says angrily. ‘And how the hell did no one know she was missing?’ Bonnie sucks in a tight breath. ‘I only knew her one summer. Why does it hurt so much?’

‘If she meant something to you it doesn’t matter how long you knew her.’

‘It’s the fact she was murdered,’ Bonnie says. ‘That’s what makes it so awful.’

My mind strays to Jill. Would her death have been even harder if she’d been killed? I don’t have the answer.

‘She was the only friend I had,’ Bonnie says again. ‘The first person who wanted to spend time with me. I never had that before her.’

‘Of course you did,’ I say, though I know this isn’t true.

‘No one wanted to be friends with me. But she did.’

I shift on my chair, keeping an eye on the customers, making sure no one is listening. ‘Bonnie, you remember she was called away?’ I say. ‘What exactly happened? Wasn’t she called back to see a sick relative, was it an aunt?’

For a moment Bonnie doesn’t speak, then she snaps, ‘What are you still doing there?’

‘I’m coming back,’ I sigh, thinking of all the people who don’t want me here either. ‘I’ll have to wait until morning now, though,’ I go on. ‘Please tell me what happened when Iona left.’

‘What are you getting at?’

‘Just – I don’t know – how did she seem to you? She must have been upset when she got the call, especially if it meant she had to suddenly go home.’

Bonnie is silent again.

‘Bon, you were the closest one to her,’ I urge. The more my sister clams up, the more my stomach ties itself into knots. What is she hiding?

‘I realise that,’ Bonnie snaps. ‘It means the police will be back again and they’ll want to know why you’re there, digging around for something completely irrelevant.’