‘I tried my best with him,’ the woman said, whose name they now knew was Eileen, ‘but he was always so difficult. He was ashamed of me. He said I was weak because I wasn’t a better mother, that I didn’t put him first. And then the trouble started.’

‘What kind of trouble?’ asked Martha. She couldn’t help but feel suspicious of this woman who had shown up out of nowhere. Why was she here? Was she going to start demanding grandparent rights? Or was she here to challenge the will Rick had made, leaving everything to his child? Did she think she was entitled to a share?

‘A neighbour’s cat disappeared and a week later it was found hanging from a tree.’

Willow let out a small gasp. She was on her feet now, rocking the pram to keep Serenity asleep, even though she didn’t appear to be stirring.

‘And when it happened twice more and he said how funny it was that cats kept disappearing and then showing up dead, I just knew in my bones that he had something to do with it. He hated cats, he said they were sly and you could never trust them.’

An uneasy hush fell on the group as they all looked at each other. It was broken by Eileen blithely continuing.

‘Which was ironic because he lied and cheated as easily as breathing. In the end, and after he turned eighteen and finished his A-levels, my husband insisted that he move out. It sounds terrible, but it was a relief when he did leave us; the arguments were escalating, and he frightened me when he lost his temper. He seemed so angry with life.’

‘Did he go to university?’ asked Willow. ‘He told me he did.’

The woman shook her head. ‘I doubt it. Unless he talked his way in somehow.’

‘So where did he go?’ This was from Mum.

‘I know what you’re thinking, that as his mother I let him down, but he was so difficult. It really was better for him to go. I never knew for sure where he went, but I assumed it was London. The last words he said to me were to swear he would never speak to me again, that he was going to change his name and reinvent himself.’ She paused as if to catch her breath. ‘He would often say that, that he was going to be someone, not a pathetic nobody like me or his stepfather. I suppose by telling you his parents were dead, that was how he felt about us. It was his way of cutting all ties with his past.’

‘Was Rick Falconer actually his name?’ probed Martha. ‘You called him Rich when you first approached us.’

‘Rich was what I always called him; it was short for Richard. His surname was Watson, which was his dad’s surname. And mine until I remarried.’

‘So how did you know he was dead?’ queried Ellis.

‘I saw it on the TV and in the newspapers. To begin with I couldn’t believe it was him, but then I knew that it was. A mother would always know her own child, even as a grown man.’