‘There’s a path by the lake. He went that way.’ She gestured to the terrace. ‘Do you want to wait out there? Take a seat. I’ll make you a cup of tea.’

He didn’t want to spend any more time there than he had to, but there was no sign of Tom, and it was possible he was out walking.

And he had no choice.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘That would be lovely.’

Alice

It was clear from his demeanour that he was lying about their father. She had seen the look of relief on his face when the lie came to him; if he had thought of it earlier it might have been more convincing, but she had seen exactly what was happening.

He was here for another reason entirely, and she knew what it was.

There was only one thing it could be.

He knew about the photo. Somehow he had found out.

She bit her lip hard in frustration. She should have figured that out earlier, maybe gone through Tom’s emails. But things had moved too quickly, and now here Roland was, fucking up her plans.

Well, it didn’t change anything. He was going to die anyway. This just meant she’d have to find out whether he’d told anyone else before she killed him. And if he had, she would have even more to deal with.

But she was calm. She would find a way. She always found a way.

She looked out of the kitchen window. He was sitting at the table, facing the lake. The boat wasn’t visible from that angle; the lawn was flat and then there was a sudden dip. You had to be much closer to the lake shore before you could see anything on it.

The kettle whistled and she poured the water onto a teabag. As it steeped she opened her day pack and pulled out what she needed.

She smiled. This was going to be a fun warm-up to the main event.

And she couldn’t wait.

She put milk in the tea and went outside.

Roland

This was not right at all. There was a chill in the air and the sun was setting. At this time Tom should have been home, eating with his wife and daughter before getting ready to put her to bed, not wandering around the shores of a lake.

He forced himself to keep calm. It was possible Tom was out walking. Perhaps the fresh air helped Joanna to get to sleep. Perhaps it helped Tom clear his mind and relax.

Perhaps.

But none of that could change the feeling that something was wrong. It was the whole situation. The photograph, the lack of a response from Tom, the police phone call. There was something going on with Alice, something long-standing and very bad that was not going to end well.