And then she saw Beth. Since their return from France her younger sister had worn an almost permanent scowl, a maudlin ferocity making her features sharp and angular beneath her ravaged hair. But now, in the soft evening light, Beth appeared calm, serene. Abi still had her arm around Eva’s shoulder, her fingers squeezing reassurance, but Eva drew no solace from it. She looked at her younger sister, the placid smoothness of her expression – something prayerful about it, beatific. Like a believer who’d spent a lifetime waiting, Eva thought, finally to be rewarded by the Second Coming.

AUTUMN

‘Is she alone?’ I ask.

Cassins, the detective, raises her amber eyes to me.

‘Mark is with her. As a minor, she needs an adult accompanying her during questioning,’ she explains, adding: ‘She asked for him.’

Watching me to see how that lands.

I nod, remain composed.

‘Well, if that’s what she wants.’ My hands in my lap, kneading my thumb joint hard, waiting for the pop.

She’s here in this building. Where? I wonder. In the next room? Further down the corridor? Distantly, I’m aware of noise. The muffled sound of a phone ringing. Perhaps there’s a particular room for interviewing the suspect, especially one who’s owned up so easily. Who sat cross-legged on the ground, eyes closed, waiting for the police to come, her face tilted towards the sunlight, feeble as it was this morning.

This morning.

It shocks me anew. The space of a few hours and everything is changed. Lives devastated. Destroyed.

She’d sat there on the ground, serene, a yogic pose, the faintest smile on her face – a yogic pose, for God’s sake! Nearby the blood trickled and flowed, still warm. And I ran across the grass, screaming.

‘To get back to it,’ Cassins says, bringing my attention once more to the line of questioning. ‘How would you describe their relationship? Would you say it was close?’

‘Yes. At least it was for a while. Very close.’

Those two girls in the water, light glimmering around them, arms about each other as they slowly turned. Nothing in the world existing for either of them beyond their own locked gaze. Had I known then what it would be like? Was I wilfully deaf to the whisperings of conscience?

‘Was it love, Abi?’

I had thought so, hadn’t I? At the time.

‘It was too one-sided to be love. Too distant – Corinne always held herself back, made herself aloof. Adoration, that’s what it was. Beth adored her.’

Worshipped her like an unworthy devotee.

‘But this adoration wasn’t returned?’

‘No, not really. She liked Beth. At first, we thought Corinne was good for her, showing an interest in her, drawing her out of herself. Beth had been very shy, you see. Not many friends. Well, not any really.’