We are tucked away in Davey’s diner, the only place I could think of where we could speak freely without being overheard. The diner is mostly frequented by groundworkers and lorry drivers, and we don’t have to run the risk of bumping into the yummy mummies the way we would in the upmarket café in town. The smell of grease and bad coffee hangs heavy in the air, and what was welcoming warmth after the wintry air outside is now stifling. Pamela pushes a piece of toast around the plate in front of her, before sipping at the tea we ordered for appearance sake.

‘So,’ I push my mug away from me and lean forward onto my elbows, ‘are you going to tell me what’s going on?’

Pamela sighs, twisting a silver ring round on her right hand. ‘It’s not how you think, Anna, I promise. I know I lied to you, but I didn’t want to . . . disrupt things any more than they already were. I can explain everything.’

‘Go on then.’ I lean back, snatching up a sugar packet from the bowl in front of me and fiddling with it, just for something to do with my hands.

‘Look, you know I was . . . Dominic and I were together before he met Fran, right?’ Pamela’s voice is low, and I have to lean forward again to be able to hear her. ‘We were together for a long time, and as far as I was aware everything was perfect. Until the baby.’

‘Baby?’ I hiss. ‘What baby?’

‘Fran didn’t tell you?’ Pamela frowns, her hand to her mouth. ‘Maybe she doesn’t know.’

Impatient, I nudge her into talking again.

‘I found out I was pregnant. We weren’t even trying, and then I felt sick, and tired, so I did a test and it was positive. Dom always said he never wanted children, but I thought – we’d been together for five or six years at this point, were engaged to be married – I thought once he got his head round it, it would be OK. We’d have the baby, get married and be a proper family.’

‘Obviously that didn’t happen.’ My heart softens a little at the look on her face, devastated even five years after this all happened, before I remember that she lied to me. That she could know something about Laurel’s disappearance, might even have something to do with it.