‘He was an idiot. If he’d just been a bad person, I could have lived with that. But a bad person who thinks they’re a good one – now that’s what got him into trouble. And now you’re forcing me to watch you make the same mistakes he did, and you expect me to smile and pretend it’s okay? Just when our family was coming together . . . and now this to deal with.’

Her words rattled me. The same mistakes my father made? Was she accusing me of being involved with Green Boots’ death? I was aghast at the implication. Then, because I was hurt and because I’d never said it to her face, I lashed out. ‘Michael is a killer.’

‘He killed someone. But does that make him a killer? People kill people and get medals for it. People kill people because it’s their job. Michael’s not rare or different. You label him a murderer? Do you think the same of Katherine? Of Sofia? If you had to make the same choices he did, for whatever reasons he made them, what would that make you?’

‘It’s not the same.’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘I think there’s a body outside who would disagree with you.’

‘Michael didn’t kill him.’

‘I believe that.’ I said it so quickly, I realised I did. ‘But someone did. And it seems all too convenient that this happened this weekend, with Michael arriving. It’s got something to do with us, I know it.’

That seemed to annoy her. There was something else in her agitation, in her glances behind me.

I took a chance and stepped towards her, lowering my voice. ‘Do you know who the dead man is?’

‘I don’t.’ At the risk of spoiling things, she’s telling the truth here. ‘But he’s not one of us. That’s all that matters.’

‘What is it you’re not telling me?’