‘Do you think there’s someone there?’

‘Like who? All the others are still by the fire, aren’t they?’

‘Not them. Someone else . . .’ They listened for a few seconds, but all they could hear was their own breathing, and the general hum of conversation from the rest of the group.

‘Probably the same killer deer as before,’ Simon said with a grin. ‘It probably wonders what the fuck we’re doing.’

‘You think?’ She tried to shake off the fear, but without success.

‘Absolutely. What’s wrong with you, anyway? Has something happened?’

Carina didn’t answer. Instead, she chewed at her upper lip, still listening.

‘It’s silly,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m just a bit drunk and paranoid.’

‘What are you talking about?’

She shook her head.

‘Tell me!’ Simon took her by the arm. His touch wasn’t unpleasant – quite the reverse, in fact. Carina took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. ‘OK, so the week before school finished, Marie and I were on the bus home. We were bored and started talking about our favourite ’80s hits.’

Simon laughed. ‘Which one of you went for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley?’

‘Fuck off.’

‘Sorry, sorry. Go on – you were on the bus talking about ’80s hits.’

‘I happened to mention that I really like “When Doves Cry”.’

‘Prince – good song!’

‘It is!’ Carina’s face lit up. ‘Anyway, we started humming the bit that goes do do-do. Do do do-do. After a while it became a thing. We’d be talking about something else, and suddenly one of us would start humming and the other one would join in. Do do-do – we’d laugh until we nearly wet ourselves. Not very mature, but you know what that last week was like. It was such a relief to be finishing school.’

Simon nodded.

‘The next morning—’ She broke off. ‘Promise you won’t laugh.’

‘Scout’s honour.’ Simon saluted with his right hand.

‘So . . . no, it sounds really stupid.’ Carina could feel her cheeks burning.

‘Just tell me.’

‘OK, but don’t laugh!’ She pulled herself together. ‘The next morning there was a dead bird on my windowsill. A white dove.’

There was a brief silence, then Simon burst out laughing.

‘Fuck’s sake, Simon, you promised!’ Carina punched him in the chest.

‘Sorry, it just sounds so . . .’

‘Stupid. Yes, I know. I’m a blonde bimbo.’ She folded her arms and turned away.

‘I didn’t mean it like that. I really am sorry. You’re anything but stupid, Carina. You don’t think the dove had just crashed into the window?’

‘No, because the noise would have woken me up. It wasn’t battered at all – it was just lying there. It looked as if was asleep. It was almost beautiful, but in a horrible way. I got the idea that someone had overheard us, followed me home. I’ve been paranoid ever since.’