When I let myself into the B&B Rachel stops rifling through the drawers of her bureau and looks up. ‘Take off your shoes, you’re leaving a puddle on the floor,’ she says, eyeing me cautiously.

I do as she says, pairing them up neatly by the door.

‘You’d best get a towel,’ she murmurs, going back to whatever she was looking for. ‘And I suspect you’ve heard the news.’ She pauses again and glances over her shoulder. ‘The body. A young girl who lived here a long time back.’

‘Yes, I heard,’ I say.

‘Did you know her?’

I nod.

‘I’m sorry.’ She turns back to her desk. It won’t be long before she hears just how well we did know Iona. ‘There’s a note for you on the sideboard,’ she adds. ‘It was on the mat earlier.’

I pick up the envelope, turning it over in my hands. My name has been written on the front in block capitals. ‘Thank you,’ I say and when she doesn’t respond I go up the stairs to my room.

I close the door behind me, ripping off my wet coat and throwing it on the bed, then slide a finger under the seal of the envelope and peel it open, pulling out a small sheet of notepaper. The writing mimics that from the envelope – all in block capitals.

My eyes skim over the words but I have to reread them before I can take in their warning.

STOP DIGGING. YOU WON’T LIKE WHAT YOU FIND.

I glance back at the door, half expecting Rachel might have followed me up. My breaths are shallow as I turn back to the note, reading the two lines over and over until they blur in front of me.

I sink on to the bed and tears sting my eyes as a sense of desperation overwhelms me. I am out of my league. My fingers tremble as they continue to clutch on to the piece of paper, its warning staring back.

I want to get off the island now. Maybe, I think, there is some way I can get back without having to wait until morning.

Dropping the note, I close my eyes and allow images of Dad to plague my mind. He knows more than he’s telling, but surely, I cry silently, he had nothing to do with Iona’s death.

Yet there’s a fragile strand that links my dad to her and it’s one I’ve spent the last twenty-five years trying to erase from my mind.

It’s the reason I couldn’t go back to my and Jill’s secret place. The reason my family began to break down.

And now what if someone else knows about it too? Someone on this island, and for whatever reason they don’t want me digging any more?