As we joined Marcelo’s group, Michael drifted over to Erin, who slid her hand into his back pocket. When we were married – sorry, we are still married; technically, I should say, when we were together – Erin hadn’t been a fan of public displays of affection. She’d had a difficult, sometimes violent childhood, raised by a single father who hit her in secret and hugged her in public. As a consequence, she struggled to see over-the-top fondness as genuine, as anything more than an act. She didn’t trust it. I mention this because we would rarely kiss in public, and certainly never indulged in any back-pocket action. A palm on the small of my back, maybe. Her show of affection towards Michael struck me as very performative. Possessive, even. I wasn’t sure if it was for me or for Lucy. Maybe I was jealously over-thinking it and my brother just had a better arse.

‘We’ve decided,’ Marcelo said, loud enough for the group but directed at Michael and Erin, ‘that we should tell you something together – otherwise you might hear it from others.’

‘I’m not sure . . .’

‘Lucy, please. Michael, the last thing we want is to give you any undue stress this weekend. But we either tell you now, together, or we wait for hearsay and rumour to kick in.’

My mother was nodding along, which, as usual, held more weight than Marcelo’s words. Michael shot a quick look towards the rest of us, but I could have sworn he was searching out my face. Perhaps he thought it had something to do with the money. Or something to do with him and Erin.

‘There’s been an incident,’ said Marcelo. ‘The body of a man was found this morning. It seems he lost his way overnight and died of exposure.’ Marcelo’s gaze swivelled across the group, but settled on Sofia, as if daring her to speak up. ‘That’s as simple as I can tell it.’

‘There are police here,’ Michael surmised. ‘Patrol SUV by the maintenance shed. I didn’t think anything of it, but that makes sense. Okay. Poor guy.’

‘There’s something else you need to know.’ This time it was Sofia. Lucy spun around and stared daggers at her. Marcelo cleared his throat to talk over her, but Michael raised a hand in his direction, which, I think purely because that had never happened to Marcelo before, stopped him mid-breath. I swear the snap of his mouth closing echoed across the valley. ‘They don’t know who it was. Apparently, it’s not someone staying here. No one’s really doing anything at the moment, but there are more detectives on their way. They may wish to do some questioning.’

Everyone nodded in agreement, impressed by Sofia’s newfound tact. I wasn’t buying it; I think she was trying to push Michael’s buttons. Words like ‘detectives’ and ‘questioning’. She was trying to scare him.