‘Okay, we’ll take my sister’s car.’

The radio is playing some song about leaving the past behind. I’m not familiar with the artist but his lyrics hold my attention, talking to me as I struggle to understand what is going on. What has happened in my past? What is it that I must leave behind? The moon hovers bright in the clear sky; everything’s calm except me. The pink coat holds the answer. I know it does. I have to find out why it ended up in Danny’s house, how Bert came to have it in the first place. And why did he wait until now to bring it out? Jeff has stopped trying to convince me it’s just a pink coat, that it might be a coincidence. The missing button put a stop to that. Could all this mean that Mom’s words weren’t some random moment of imagination falling from her lips? That she was telling the truth? Or is there some other explanation for all this?

Jeff parks the car down the street from Bert’s house. I feel sick, my stomach doing a dance inside. Jeff consoles me, tells me to turn back, wait until tomorrow. But I can’t, I have to go in now or I might not make it to tomorrow. He moves to get out of the car with me.

‘No, Jeff, you stay,’ I say, resting my hand on his leg, nodding a smile at him. Bert wouldn’t like to see a stranger at his door at this hour of night, even if that stranger is accompanied by a deluded neighbor.

This is mine, I must do this alone.

The street is quiet as a graveyard when I step out of the car. Nothing moves; the large oak trees seem painted into place, a backdrop on the stage of my drama.

‘Wish me luck.’ I bend down to say before closing the door.

You’re on your own now. Becca Wall. Except I’m not. In the distance the dark shape of a man walks out of Bert’s yard. It’s definitely not Bert. The step is too quick, the frame too thin. Moving out of the streetlight, I pull open the car door and jump back inside, lowering my head so I’m peering over the dashboard.

‘What’s going on?’ Jeff says.

‘Sshh.’ I wait for the man’s face to come into view, for him to look this way. And then, stepping out on to the road, he turns his head, checking both ways.

Danny?

What the hell is Danny doing coming from Bert’s house at this hour of the night?

Chapter Forty

‘Maybe he was just checking up on him,’ Jeff says, trying to calm me down while I sit in the car, shocked and confused.