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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

‘Let’s have our tea, shall we?’ says Claire. ‘He’ll be down when he’s ready. Shall I take that?’ She lifts the cake tin lid. ‘Ah, chocolate! I’m sure he’ll love it.’

Overhead, a floorboard creaks. They settle in the lounge.

‘So, any more news?’ asks Jack, and Matt shakes his head and signals upwards with his eyes to denote a taboo subject.

Jack changes tack. ‘How’s work?’

‘Oh, you know,’ says Matt. ‘Busy.’

‘You’re lucky he’s here,’ says Claire. ‘I don’t see very much of him, these days.’

‘I’m doing a lot of travelling at the moment,’ says Matt. ‘We’re trying to establish an office in Oxford.’

‘And Colchester,’ puts in Claire.

‘Well,’ says Matt. ‘That’s a different thing.’

The floorboards creak again. Jack catches Dora’s eye.

‘As long as you’re busy,’ says Dora. ‘I worry you’ll get laid off.’

‘I shan’t get laid off, Mum,’ says Matt, with a touch of irritation. ‘I’ve been made a director. How was your drive down?’

‘Oh, we did all right,’ says Jack. ‘Traffic was heavy around . . .’

He stops. Through the open lounge door, he can see the stairs, and on the stairs he can see a sock-clad foot. His eyes prick with tears, but he blinks them back, and signals Dora to stay in her chair. A second foot appears, and now he can see thin fingers on the banister.

Jack’s heart is beating too fast; he really should find his tablets. Standing up from his chair, he crosses to the doorway and looks up.

He sees a skinny, dishevelled Evan, pale and sad-eyed, and Jack thinks his heart will break. But he puts on a smile, and moves to the bottom of the stairs.

‘Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, my boy,’ he says. ‘Come and give your old grandpa a hug.’

And Evan does.

FOURTEEN

FOURTEEN

24 June

Naylor rings the doorbell at the Ferrerses’ house. The routine is familiar from all those weeks they were backwards and forwards here when Evan went missing, and now the case is back in the forefront, they’ll be backwards and forwards all over again. Some things haven’t changed, though the season is different. Matt’s Audi isn’t there, but Claire’s Renault is on the drive, looking less well-cared-for than it did. When Evan disappeared, the car was brand-new. The front garden smells of British summer, wet roses and dank greenery, and in the borders, virulent dandelions have taken hold, spoiling displays of pink dianthus and poking through spikes of salvias. The small front lawn has been recently mown and is strewn with clumps of Flymo-chewed grass. As the doorbell dies away, Naylor hears the usual sounds of the suburbs: a plane high overhead, the buzz of a strimmer, traffic on the high street, and far away, a siren.