To me, the mess looks less about bad tenants or wear and tear, and more about dirty dishes in the sink and open cans of food on the counter top. There’s a musty smell, something like clothes that have been washed but not dried, and beneath that, I realize, there’s a smell of stale smoke. It makes my skin crawl, reminding me of another place, just as it always does. So when Cora suggests we take our coffees outside, I don’t hesitate.

The garden is a different vista entirely. Huge leafy hedges border the sides, and tall trees like ours line the back. Raised flower beds, edged with stone, run the length of the garden, one on each side, and at the end there’s one more raised bed, this one a blaze of wildflower colour with tulips, foxgloves and poppies.

‘What a beautiful garden.’

‘Yes. My mother insisted on doing it herself, and once she went into the nursing home, she made me promise to keep it tidy and tended. Every time I visited, she’d be over at the window, smoking those disgusting black cigarillos of hers, rasping away at me. “How is my garden, Cora? You must look after it.” That woman never cared about anything other than herself and this garden.’ She doesn’t sound bitter. Just resigned.

We take seats, side by side, on a wooden bench that faces the sun.

‘So, Joanna. I think we can say we’re friends now, yes?’

I’m a little taken aback and glad we’re side by side so she can’t see my face.

‘Of course.’

‘I was premature when we talked on Tuesday. I may even have come across abrupt or rude when you asked about that morning. People tell me I can be abrupt.’

‘God no, not at all,’ I say, remembering how she held her hand up to stop me mid-sentence. ‘Totally understand. I shouldn’t have asked.’

‘I’ve thought it over, and I think it’s time to talk.’

I tense on the bench, trying not to look eager, wondering what’s brought on this change of mind.

‘There’s no big secret,’ she continues. ‘The thing is, I wasn’t actually there when Lily disappeared. I’d gone to another girl’s house to get a drink of water – a girl called Aoife who was a few years older than me. When I got back, I couldn’t see Lily where I’d left her. But it was Hide and Seek, people were always moving places. I just found another spot and stayed there until it was time to go home for lunch.’

She turns to face me and it’s going to be weird if I don’t meet her gaze, even though it means we’re so close I can smell the coffee on her breath.

‘I see,’ is all I say, because really, what is there to say? I don’t know what I was hoping and she was hardly going to confide in me thirty years on that she saw someone kidnap Lily, but this feels anticlimactic.