Pally looked between the two of them and then wandered back to the trailer door. Trace came down the steps, passing her dad with a brief pat on his shoulder. She approached Josh and stood there looking at him expectantly.

‘Five minutes then,’ she said. ‘Let’s walk.’

Trace and Josh went out of the camp and down the dell by the line of poplars, toward the wildflower meadow and the disused old church beyond. Two of the lurchers followed, romping around in the long grass playing tag. The sun shone down. It was heaven, like he had once known with Claire.

‘So speak,’ Trace said after a while, halting and turning to look at him with stark dislike.

Josh stopped walking too. Above them, skylarks whirled in the sky, singing – a tinkling waterfall of wild joyous notes. The sun beat down like a blessing. But in his heart there was only darkness.

‘What do you know about Shauna and Jeb Cleaver?’ he asked her.

‘What?’

‘You heard.’

Trace was nodding slowly. ‘Didn’t think you knew about that. What’s she told you?’

‘That it was one date, then forgotten.’

Trace rolled her eyes and blew out her cheeks. ‘My arse. They were an item for like, forever. You didn’t notice of course. Besotted, weren’t you – with Claire. I thought at the time – so did Claire – that the whole Jeb Cleaver thing was for your benefit. Make you jealous. Or try to. Didn’t work, did it? You didn’t even bloody notice.’

Josh looked at Trace. She was not pretty. Claire had always been the attractive one. Even now, Claire had kept her looks. But Trace hadn’t and she’d become a plain middle-aged woman, thickening around the middle. ‘What did you think, about Claire vanishing like she did?’

‘Who knows? Maybe they done away with her.’

‘They?’

‘Shauna and Jeb Cleaver.’

‘Is that what you think?’

‘Maybe. You ought to know what Shauna’s like, she’s your missus, ain’t she. So who knows? Claire’s dog vanished too that night. Blue. Good old dog, he was. Gone like he’d just disappeared into thin air.’ Trace looked at Josh sharply. ‘Shauna’s lot were rotten, you know. Dark and bloody dangerous. They were into curses and black magic, things to do you harm. My Nanny Irene had some powers in that direction too, but all she ever did was help and heal people. She’s dead now, God rest her.’