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Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

‘Claire! Claire!’ His voice sounds loud across the yard, but Claire’s car isn’t there.

Evan appears from the barn and looks up at his grandfather, his face showing his concern.

‘Evan! Evan, your grandma needs an ambulance. Go and ring them, son! Ring 999, and tell them where to come.’

Evan’s still looking up at him, hesitating.

‘Just do it!’ Jack orders in desperation, and Evan runs away round the house and in through the kitchen door.

Upstairs Jack is crying, pressing Dora’s trembling hand to his lips. In the hall where the photo of him and Evan stands near the phone, Evan picks up the receiver and dials 999. When the operator answers, Evan’s voice is clear and loud.

‘We need an ambulance quickly,’ he says. ‘My grandma’s very ill.’

THIRTY-THREE

THIRTY-THREE

15 October

‘Where’s Dad? Dad?’ Thinking Jack must be in the bedroom, Matt calls up the stairs but there’s no reply. He puts his head round the lounge door and glances into the dining room. Jack isn’t there.

‘He can’t be outside, surely?’ he asks. ‘It’s pouring out there.’

Evan is sitting at the kitchen table, an empty milk glass and a plate with a few cake crumbs by his elbow, engrossed in a Manga version of The Count of Monte Cristo he found at the library.

‘Evan, do you know where Grandpa is? He and I need to get going. The registry office closes at four.’

Evan looks up from his reading and around the kitchen, as if surprised Jack isn’t there. He shrugs, closes his book and leaves the kitchen to go upstairs.

The door to the bedroom Jack shared with Dora for forty-three years is closed. Evan taps on it, and pushes it gently open. The bed is neatly made, but Jack isn’t there. Evan checks the bathroom, but there’s no one there either. He goes back downstairs.

‘No sign?’ asks Matt, and Evan shakes his head. ‘Any idea where he might be?’

In reply, Evan takes a waterproof coat down from the rack and slips on his wellingtons.

Outside, the rain’s what Grandpa calls stair-rods, hammering down from dark clouds where thunder rumbles, bouncing off the yard and running in rivulets down the lane. A muddy puddle has already formed under the gate to the home field. The air smells of lightning’s sulphur and dank earth, and of the yellow leaves fallen from the hawthorn trees decaying in the grass.

His vision hampered by the huge hood on his jacket, Evan makes his way to the field gate, pulls back the latch and slips through the smallest opening he can, checking the gate is properly shut behind him as Grandpa has taught him. Hearing the click of the latch, a few sheep raise their heads from grazing and gaze at him, indifferent to his presence and to the rain, though most are pressed together in the shelter of the wall.