He sniffed. ‘Oh, that island. Ain’t nothing there. Used to be. Monastery and the like. People used to come to take their stupid pictures. All gone now.’

‘But there is something there, isn’t there? Ing Enterprises owns it. My daughter came here not so long ago and then went over to that island to take part in their trial. She told me.’

The man sniffed. ‘No.’

‘No?’

‘No. Looks like the trial’s over. They’re moving out.’

Vivian snapped a glance at the island, but it was a late winter’s afternoon and she wasn’t able to make out anything more than a blocky, misshapen lump. ‘Why?’

‘Why would I know? They’d not tell me.’ He opened a ledger with a thump, the spine breaking immediately to the right page. ‘You can’t ’ave a room.’

The trial was over; Ing Enterprises was moving out. Vivian fumbled in her handbag and retrieved her phone once more – no messages, no missed calls. But if this man was right and Thea was at this moment sailing over to the mainland then this was exactly where she wanted to be.

She plonked her bag on the reception counter. ‘Why bother opening if you don’t want anyone to stay?’

There was silence. The man sniffed again and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I’m a man of ’abit.’

Behind him were two large keys hanging from hooks on the wall. There was a conspicuous streaking in the dust around the key on the third hook, as if someone had carelessly swiped it from the wall recently. Vivian put her hands palm down on the reception desk and, feeling the stickiness under her fingers, instantly wished she hadn’t.

‘My daughter’s name is Thea.’ Vivian’s voice softened. ‘She’s twenty-seven and I am very proud of her: she’s funny and smart and worth much more than she thinks she is. Do you have children, Mr—?’

She thought he might not reply, but he did. ‘Alastair. Name’s Alastair.’

Then he shuffled his feet and loosened his crossed arms. Only a little. ‘Gotta boy. Don’t see ’im much,’ he said.

‘You see, Alastair; my funny, smart, precious girl came here because she doesn’t sleep very well and that made her desperate. Desperate people do silly things. And the silly thing she did was to put her trust in those people on that island. They promised to fix her, even though she doesn’t need fixing in my opinion. And then I stopped hearing from her.’

Vivian held Alastair’s gaze.

‘It’s been a long day,’ she carried on. ‘I don’t admit this to many people, but I’m getting old and long days make me tired so I need a room for the night. I’ll most likely be out of your hair in the morning and you can say you’ve never heard of me.’