Audrey sniffed. ‘You like control, Sadie. You like your child to be where you want him to be and act the way you want him to act, and reflect the happy family glow right back at you. And if you understood that, you might get a bit closer to knowing why Jack doesn’t want to be at home and doesn’t tell you where he is. He doesn’t care to be controlled by you or anyone else. I didn’t know he was lying to you, as it happens. He didn’t volunteer the information and I didn’t ask him. But I can’t say I’m surprised to hear it. How did you find out where he was today?’

‘I saw him arrive. I was parking my car at the end of the street, on my way to see you.’

‘And now you know. Does that make you feel better?’

I couldn’t fathom Audrey’s hostility. I wasn’t an enemy. Why was she determined to make me into one?

‘No,’ I said. I had been imagining that Jack and I were just at adolescent cross-purposes, as Lola and Caz and Graham also believed. I thought I could put matters right between us by an effort of will. But now an abyss had opened up and as I peered down from the edge of it into windy darkness I was afraid that I might lose him altogether.

‘I’m sorry for assuming you were party to the lie,’ I managed to say. Actually, I thought that Audrey was likely to have understood the situation perfectly clearly, but I still shouldn’t have made the accusation.

She ignored the apology anyway. ‘What are you going to do, then? Forbid him to come round to my place?’

‘I don’t think I can do that, can I? I could ask you to make sure that your influence on him is a positive one.’

Audrey gave a derisive hoot. ‘Jack’s old enough and more than intelligent enough to make his own judgements about influence, don’t you think?’

Her aggression stung me. ‘Why are you being so bloody unhelpful? I don’t understand what’s the matter with you or what makes you so hostile, but if you want to stay in touch with my family, for Ted’s sake or Jack’s or your own, you could try to see my point of view. My concern’s for Jack.’

‘You’re a priggish woman, Sadie, do you know that?’

‘Maybe I am,’ I breathed.

‘Goodnight,’ Audrey said calmly. And she hung up.