‘Don’t worry, I’m used to it. Get us another crappy coffee and a gallon of water will you?’

I battled my way to the counter and bought a tea for me, a coffee for Hannah, and a couple of cakes covered in butter-icing that looked like it could cause death on contact.

I squeezed myself in opposite Hannah. ‘Anyway, good to see you. What did you want to show me?’

‘Is it true though?’ Hannah said. ‘I can’t believe what I’m reading.’

I sighed. ‘Don’t believe everything you hear, but … there have been some worrying developments which I can’t discuss—’

‘You sound like a politician, but I’ll take that as a yes. My God.’

‘It’s quite challenging. I can’t be long.’

‘I know, I know, but I do need you to tell me how it’s going with your dad and the rare parental visitation.’

‘I’ll give you a full run-down, Hannah, but not right now. It’s going okay though.’

‘Did you find out why he’s suddenly visited you, after all these years of total silence?’

‘He wants to see me.’

Hannah raised her eyebrows.

‘And he’s split up with Pauline.’

‘And I bet you’ve totally forgiven him for being such a shit dad for so long, haven’t you?’

I felt a spark of irritation that she’d speak about him like this. I was allowed to slag him off, but she wasn’t. It was in the official friend rules. ‘He’s being lovely. Making me food, buying nice gin and wine, asking me about stuff.’

‘Well, be careful. I know what you’re like.’

‘Christ, you’re as bad as my mum. Now what did you want to show me?’

She fished her phone out of her pocket, tapped the screen, and passed it to me. ‘I know I could have emailed you this, but I wanted a look around the village and I thought you’d be coming up here. See this video I found. I’ve been researching Violet and I saw her video about having seen that Pale Child. I thought it was a bit creepy, so I had a look for more Pale Child stuff and found this. I don’t know how relevant it is, but it’s called “Pale Child Sighting”.’

I shielded the screen so nobody else could see it. A video played. A rocky moor at dusk, the camera sitting low and at a slight angle as if it was resting on a makeshift tripod. A glimpse of white in the distance. A girl, clambering away over the rocks. She stopped. Turned to face the camera. I felt a jolt of unease. She was wearing an old-fashioned white dress and a doll’s face mask, just like Violet had reported in her video. The girl turned and ran away through the heather.