‘Yes, I think you’re right. I haven’t seen her for a few days, which is unlike Muriel. I’m not being funny, but well … she is a bit of a busybody usually. No offence.’

Lizzie laughed. ‘None taken. I am quite sure it runs in the genes.’ Her faced burned. She was beginning to feel guilty about her lies.

‘And it’s their age, I reckon. It’s like they’ve less to think about so they have to create a bit of drama to keep their minds active. Running the shop is what’s keeping my mother going.’

‘But she’s not been working?’

‘Nope. And, coincidentally, she’s felt under the weather since Friday. I get the vibe from her that she’s scared to leave the house. Which is really unlike her as she’d usually delight at being at the heart of this kind of village gossip. It only comes along once in a blue moon.’

‘In thirty years,’ Lizzie said, absently.

‘Exactly. And both times it’s been related to the same man.’

‘Do you remember anything from back then, from when Jonie went missing?’

‘Not a whole lot, no. I was still at primary school, my last year I believe. I only really remember the stupid game we all played back then – Knock, Knock, Ginger – and the fact we targeted Billy Cawley’s bungalow a lot more than any other house. It was because it was the biggest thrill, of course: he was the strangest, most scary adult we knew. It’s weird, looking back, because we all thought he was so old. Old Man Cawley, the village weirdo. God, he must’ve only been in his late twenties. How mad is that?’

‘Twenty-five, actually.’

‘Shit, is that all? Why do I have the image of some ancient old man then?’

‘Our recall will do that. We were kids. Don’t you remember also thinking your teachers were at death’s door? And that your parents were old fogies?’

Rob laughed. ‘Yes, that’s true. I still see some of the teachers who were at our school, and they don’t seem any different!’

Rob was talking as though Lizzie had been at the school at the same time, experiencing the same things. She hoped he didn’t ask her any specific questions because she recalled very little of her school years. She was younger than Rob, though, so he wouldn’t remember her from his class at least. But there had been fewer than a hundred pupils in the entire school, so there was a possibility he’d realise her name didn’t match any from that time.

What will happen when he realises I’m not exactly who I say I am?

She drove the thought from her mind. ‘Remind me again, how did they figure out it was him? How did they catch him?’

‘Ah, well – a lot of it was circumstantial evidence to begin with. Timing of when Jonie went missing, what he had been like in the run-up to her disappearance—’

‘What he’d been like? How do you mean?’