Lunchtime was quickly over, for which Tilly was thankful; she found Matt’s disapproving silence at table unwarranted and irksome. The two men ignored each other and she gave up pretending not to notice, eating her salad and answering Connor’s occasional remarks. Afterwards Matt returned to his work, and once she had cleaned up, Tilly climbed into Connor’s vehicle with a feeling of defiance, ridiculous though that was. She could do as she pleased, she told herself. Still, it was hard not to picture Matt observing her from within the black shadows of the workshop. The whole exercise was a waste of time – she had convinced herself as much over lunch – but Connor was being kind and the least she could do was to see out his offer since she had, after all, accepted it.

The camp was full, only Don Wellaway’s site unoccupied. People sat on folding chairs or lay on camp beds in the shade. They were reading, dozing, chatting together or listening to their radios. One swung in a hammock, a leg draped indolently over the side. Women were busy at the laundry tubs, bird watchers wandered about with binoculars, people carrying cameras returned from the river, and three young children shrieked with glee as they ran through the sprinklers on the grassed area about the ablution block.

Tilly, observing them all, lifted her hands. ‘What was I thinking? I can’t line up the people to inspect them. And we don’t even know if they’re all here.’

‘Why don’t we just mooch around the camp sites – see if there’s a single anywhere?’ Connor suggested.

So they had done so but without success. Every camp site had a vehicle parked in it, and glimpses of open tents, or the paired chairs outside caravans all bore witness to more than one occupant.

Back at their starting point, Tilly turned to her companion. ‘Obviously I was wrong. I must’ve been thinking about Gerry and imagined the whole thing. None of the campers are remotely like him, and anyway, they’re all couples or family groups. Let’s go back, Connor. I’ve wasted enough of your time.’

‘Whatever you want, Tilly. Look at it this way – if nothing else, you’ve set your mind at rest and incidentally saved the rangers from mounting a search. I mean if someone was missing . . .’

‘Well, he isn’t, because he was never here.’ Feeling foolish, Tilly climbed into the vehicle, thanking her stars she hadn’t spoken of the matter to anyone else. ‘Can we just forget all about it, Connor? And please, don’t mention it to the others.’

‘Of course not.’ He drew two fingers across his lips. ‘Your secret’s safe with me. By the by, do you know what’s got into Matt? He seems very unfriendly all of a sudden.’