‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what Zara said, but she’s become … interested in Joe lately. My brother. I suppose it’s a fascinating thing: the uncle you never met, who you’ll never get to meet. That whole robot zombies game back there? That’s based on the last conversation I can remember having with him. Zara asked me and I told her, and she absolutely seized on it. Why not, you know? It’s nice to see him in her.’ He sighed. ‘But yeah, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that he probably died years ago, but we’ve never had any certainty over it. It’s hellish. I’m so sorry to hear about your mother too. These things are awful.’

I wanted so much to tell him everything, but I couldn’t.

‘Same,’ I said. ‘I’m really sorry about Joe, I mean. I can’t even imagine. He just vanished?’

Gus nodded. ‘I can only think that either he had some kind of accident without witnesses, or he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed and his body hidden. Both of them are unthinkably awful and we’ve never had the first clue about any of it, though I used to think one of his friends knew something he wasn’t saying.’

This brought me up short. I bit back the word Lucas just before I said it. He had to mean him, though.

‘Seriously?’ I said instead. ‘How come? Who?’

Gus ignored that. ‘But then you end up suspecting everyone. And, in turn, people automatically, and forever, suspect the family, which is grim as hell.’ He sighed. ‘Sorry, Ariel. You’ve lost your mum. I’m not trying to trump that. It’s just interesting that Zara spoke to you about Joe. She usually takes longer to warm to people, but she’s really taken to you.’

‘I hope that one day you find out what happened to him.’

‘Thanks. Me too. Abby wants to get married, but I just can’t have a wedding without my brother. Other family weddings have had this gaping hole in them, where he should have been. My parents aren’t in the best of health and it would be nice if they knew what happened to him before they died, but we know that it’s unlikely now.’ He looked bleak.

‘Do your parents live locally?’ I regretted that at once, since I’d met Jasper. I was juggling a bit too much here.