“I think you must be mistaken.” Malcolm forced himself to speak calmly and clearly. “Your mum and Beth died in the kitchen. Nicky died on the landing, at the top of the stairs. Your dad’s body was there too, next to Nicky’s.”

“You’re wrong. I saw it.”

Malcolm shook his head. “It’s all there in the fiscal’s report. It’s in the letter I had off him, too. It summarizes everything the police found.”

“Well, even if it’s true that Nicky was found on the landing, all that means is that my dad must have carried him there afterwards.”

“Do you remember that part?” Malcolm said.

He watched as uncertainty creased his nephew’s face. “No. But . . . I was in shock. Things are hazy.”

“I think your mind’s been playing tricks on you,” Malcolm said. “The police, the forensics team—they can tell where someone was killed. There are things like—” he made himself say it—“blood spatter. Blood patterning. There was hardly any blood in the bedroom. Hardly any at all. Just . . . footprints. From where your father had walked.”

Tommy was shaking his head, over and over. “So . . . I couldn’t have seen him die.”

“No.”

“But then . . . the rest of it? The rest of it, Malcolm. He must have come into the bedroom and then run out again.”

“I don’t know. Maybe. But it was at the other end of the landing, your parents’ room. Wasn’t it? Not right at the top of the stairs. Would he have run along the corridor and then back again?”

“He must have,” Tommy said. “I remember seeing him looking around the room. I remember watching him through the slats. He must have come into the room.”

“Maybe he did,” Malcolm said. “He might have done.”

“I must have seen him,” Tommy said. He balled his hands into fists and pressed them to his forehead. “But everything is just so . . . I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t.”

Malcolm was silent, unsure what comfort he could give.

Tommy turned suddenly on his heel and began to walk back in the direction they’d come. Malcolm struggled to catch up with him. Out of breath, he drew level with Tommy at last.

“It feels true.” Tommy spoke without looking round. Malcolm could see there were tears in his eyes. “Whatever happened, it feels true that I betrayed him.”