Then a thought crossed her mind. Scarlet’s was not the only death in the Mountcastle family. Joan had died, too, and in the same year, if what Jez had told her was correct. Pip began to scroll again, more slowly this time as she didn’t know the exact date of death. The paper came out once a week so it didn’t take too long for her to flick across the headlines and obituaries in each edition, but there was nothing about Joan.

Then, in the last edition in November, something caught her eye. She stopped scrolling and read the article more carefully.

Tragedy hits family a second time

Tragedy has hit a local family for the second time in three months. Joan Mountcastle, local resident and sister of television actress Evelyn Mountcastle, has fallen to her death in the family home. Miss Mountcastle, thirty-seven, was found by her sister at the bottom of the stairs. She suffered catastrophic injuries and we understand that death would have been instantaneous. In August this year Miss Joan Mountcastle’s niece Scarlet, three, was found drowned. The police have confirmed that the death was an accident, Miss Mountcastle having lost her footing at the top of the stairs, and the coroner is expected to return a verdict of accidental death.

Pip shook her head at the screen. Poor Evelyn. To face two deaths in three months must have been devastating for her, particularly when she didn’t seem to have anyone else in her life – although, Pip thought, wasn’t there a brother? She was pretty sure there had been mention of him in the diary, and her mother had talked of a nephew, which suggested that Evelyn had another sibling. She reread the story again, but the brother wasn’t referred to.

Even though Pip knew nothing about Evelyn other than the flashes of insight that her diary had given, her heart ached for her. She thought of the pale face she had seen staring down at her from the first-floor window. Evelyn had seemed so vivacious in her diary, so full of life. It was hard to reconcile the two.

And then Pip remembered something else Jez had said. The rumour had been that one sister had killed the other, but there seemed to be no truth in that, if the newspaper article was to be believed. It was probably nothing more than local tittle-tattle, stories invented by schoolboys to scare one another. But still, it was an interesting idea.

‘Did you find what you were looking for?’ said a voice, making Pip start. Instinctively, she flicked the light off on the machine so the page she had been reading disappeared.