Jai pulled over to the side of the road, flicking on the hazard lights. I could see her now. In a long white dress. She was holding it up as she sprinted along the path at the southern edge of Ladybower Reservoir.

The girl ran across the dam and through a metal gate at the end. She turned sharp right and started heading up the far side of the reservoir.

‘Uh oh,’ Jai said. ‘What’s she doing?’

I squinted into the distance. Trees rose up behind the water, darkening the area I was trying to see. The girl was climbing down a stone slope that led to the reservoir base. ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ I said.

The girl reached the bottom of the slope and was now on the stone area that surrounded the spillway. This area would normally be covered by water, but the drought had left it dry.

‘That’s the same thing Charlie Twigg did,’ Jai said. ‘Daniel’s brother. He managed to climb up somehow.’

‘We’d better go after her,’ I said.

I jumped out of the car, and Jai did the same.

‘Go, Jai,’ I said. ‘You’re faster than me.’

Jai sprinted ahead and I ran across the dam, as fast as I could with my old ankle injury. To my left, the scorched grass sloped steeply down to the river far below. Even with the levels so low, the weight of water behind the dam seemed monstrous.

Panting and cursing my ankle, I arrived at the gate, pushed through it and turned right. Jai was shimmying awkwardly down the slope to get to the dry concrete area around the spillway.

Up close, the spillway was vast. About eighty feet across and twenty feet high. Designed to be hard to climb into when water levels were low. I could see the internal steps leading down to the immense hole within.

As I ran towards where Jai had gone down, I realised the girl was on the rim of the spillway. She must have climbed the pile of stones that was propped against the vertical wall. I stopped and watched her. She seemed familiar.

She took a step towards the gaping hole and turned, about to start climbing backwards into it. She was wearing a doll’s face mask, just like the one I’d found on the gritstone edge, but even so I was convinced I knew her.

My phone rang. Unknown number. I hesitated. She was poised on the rim of the spillway. I answered. A male voice. Panicky. ‘Meg Dalton?’

My breathing quickened. ‘Daniel? Daniel, is that you?’

‘It doesn’t matter about me any more, but you need to talk to Kirsty.’

‘Where are you, Daniel?’

‘I’m sorry …’ The signal was bad. I couldn’t make out his words.

‘Have you got Violet?’ I shouted. ‘Where is she?’

I lost the signal. ‘Fuck.’ I dialled the number he’d phoned on but there was no answer.