Because Simon Eliot was certainly a complicated young man. He was someone else with disturbing childhood memories. Pictures in his head. First, of a small brother who disappeared in a river in flood. Then who seemed to disappear completely from the family’s life. No toys. No clothes. No photographs. Simon must have been left with a sense of guilt, confused that nobody would acknowledge it. Had he believed himself mad? There would have been times when he’d thought the whole incident was imagined. Maybe the care of a compassionate social worker was just what he needed.

Hannah was staring at her. ‘Tell me,’ she said. ‘I want to know.’

‘Simon had a half-sister,’ Vera said, ‘called Mattie Jones.’

‘That woman who killed her child?’

‘That woman.’ Vera looked at the kitchen tiles and saw that her mucky wellingtons had left a trail of footprints. She should have taken them off at the door. ‘Veronica had a child when she was still a schoolgirl.’

‘But my mother wouldn’t have told him about that!’ Hannah’s voice was so high-pitched that it came out like a shriek. ‘She never discussed her work with anyone.’

But with Simon, Jenny Lister had broken all her rules.

‘Perhaps she didn’t tell him,’ Vera said. ‘Perhaps he found her notes. The plan for the book she intended to write.’

They sat in silence.

‘Simon and Danny were friends, weren’t they?’ Vera had done what she’d come for, but Hannah was so calm and composed that she felt she could ask more questions.

‘Sure, I told you they were.’

‘But close friends?’

‘Yeah, we were all in Folkworks, the scheme for young musicians at the Sage. Danny was a mean fiddle-player. Great on guitar too. He didn’t get on so well with the kids at school; he was more comfortable with the older guys he played music with.’

‘Even though he’d lost you to Simon?’

‘I told you. Things like that happen all the time. It’s no big deal. Danny liked heroes. Simon was older, cleverer.’

But I was distracted by it. I saw the young men as rivals, not allies. That threw me entirely off track.

‘Where is he?’ Hannah asked suddenly. ‘Where’s Simon?’

‘Last time I saw him he was soaking wet. He’d just swum across the pool at Greenhough, trying to get away from us.’