Even once he had admitted it all to himself, it took another year for him to call his sister and say that he would go with her to the police. He and Ruth had walked into the police station in October. And three weeks later their father, in a final act of punitive malice, had killed himself on Peterborough Railway Station.

‘I went there,’ Andrew says, towards the end of their session with Isobel, ‘a week after he did it, I went and I stood on the same platform. I’d asked, I knew the exact spot, and I leaned forward as a train came in and, I don’t know, I was trying to imagine what was going through his head, if he was sorry, but I think he was just sorry for himself. He didn’t want to go to prison, that was all.’

‘I haven’t been there yet,’ says Ruth, looking at Andrew. ‘I really want to. I didn’t have the nerve.’

‘It helped, I think, helped me realise, it’s the most selfish thing you can do. Everyone can contribute to the world in some way or another, and to take yourself out of the world – that’s why I say he wasn’t sorry. He wasn’t, was he? If he was, he’d have pleaded guilty and taken what was coming.’

Isobel presses her lips together. ‘Well,’ she says very softly, ‘I suppose we’ll never really know that, will we?’

There is a long silence between all three of them.

Isobel leans forward and says gently, ‘It’s time.’

*

Outside the Branfield Centre, Andrew and Ruth stand for a minute on the doorstep. Another woman comes towards them and presses the buzzer and they wait until she is admitted inside before they turn to each other and I can sense that Ruth would like to hug Andrew or suggest a bite to eat but doesn’t dare.

‘How’s the job?’ he says quickly, as if to head her off at the pass.

She nods. ‘It’s good. The other staff are great, there’s a real, I don’t know, everyone’s very friendly, and the customers, the pet owners … You should come by some time. Come on a Saturday, see what I do, it can get pretty busy on a Saturday.’

‘Is it mostly cats and dogs?’ he says, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking at her.

‘And gerbils. Quite a lot of gerbils, actually. What you going to do for Christmas?’

‘Dunno.’

They turn and set off down the street together, brother and sister, walking slightly apart like two people who have only just met and are not sure how close they should be. If you glanced at them and didn’t know them, you might think they were boyfriend and girlfriend but only if you were the kind of idiot who made assumptions.