Grace waits on the step as the children settle themselves in the car. Blake gets out again, runs into the house and re-emerges with his rucksack. Above them, she glimpses Eve’s face hovering at her window, pale as a ghost. Does Eve know that she knows? Once the car has gone, she hurries into the house and up the stairs.

‘Igor’s at the police station,’ Eve tells her as soon as she enters her bedroom. ‘He had Sorrel’s clothes under his bed.’ Her face looks frozen with fear. ‘There are two policewomen guarding his house right now.’

‘Shit.’ Grace sits next to her on the bed. She glimpsed Igor when she arrived last night; she could have called out to him, asked what he was doing. Would that have made a difference? Forestalled a plan?

In the silence, they hear footsteps rapidly crunching down the gravel drive. Eve springs up and looks outside. ‘One of the policewomen is leaving,’ she whispers.

Grace joins her at the window. The Scottish policewoman is striding down the drive, talking into her mobile, a frown distorting her features.

‘I want to look in his house,’ Eve says. ‘In case there’s something the police have overlooked, something else important.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

Outside the raw wind catches them and they bend against it; neither has thought to put on a coat. They become soaked by fine drizzle in moments. Their feet tap over the wet stone of the veranda. A few months ago they had all gathered here, there had been meadowsweet and buttercups on the table, the children leaping around a bonfire. Eve and Martin had been flirting even then.

‘I slept with Martin.’ Eve’s cheeks flame, she’s come at the same memory; despair and hurry have jerked loose her secret. Is she asking for forgiveness?

‘I know.’ Anger rises in her throat, hot and sharp. ‘I’ve known since yesterday.’

‘I can’t remember why now.’ Eve doesn’t ask how she knows; her bloodshot eyes search wildly about her, as if the dull greens and browns of the garden might provide some clue or reason. ‘He talked to me, he seemed to listen. I wasn’t used to that. I guess I was carried away by his words. I’m sorry, that sounds inadequate. I don’t understand it now so I can hardly expect you to. Whatever I felt has vanished completely.’