‘He had a row with Craig – a serious one this time. Ever since the exams, he’s been off the rails. I can’t tell you how worrying and frustrating it’s been for us. Craig has been going nuts.’ She drew in her breath, bringing her voice back under control. ‘Anyway, when we got back from Mount Juliet last weekend, we found out that Callum had quit his job at the tennis club and that was the last straw. Craig lost the plot and told him to leave.’

She explained how they had only done it to try and force the boy to take some responsibility for himself, to grow up a little. They hadn’t meant it as anything definitive or final.

‘A few days sleeping on someone’s couch,’ Irene said, ‘and we thought it would bring him to his senses. But he’s been gone for a week now, and he’s not answering his phone. We’ve no idea where he is.’

‘Have you tried his friends?’

‘Yes, of course. He was at Josh’s for the first few nights, until Elaine wanted her spare bedroom back. Since then, no one’s seen him.’

‘It’s only been a few days,’ Abi said gently. ‘I’m sure he’ll surface eventually.’

‘I’m worried he’ll do something stupid.’

‘No.’

‘That he’ll harm himself.’

‘Come on now, Irene. Of course he won’t.’

‘You don’t understand. He took some things from the house,’ she whispered.

But when Abi asked what it was that he had taken, Irene fell silent.

‘If you’re really worried, then maybe you should speak to the police—’

‘No. We can’t. Craig refuses to.’

Abi exhaled softly. ‘Well then. I suppose all you can do is wait for him to turn up.’

She heard Irene swallow and thought perhaps she was crying.

Carefully, she said: ‘If you want to meet … if you need someone to talk to, we could always—’

‘No, that’s fine,’ Irene said with a new briskness, tamping down her show of emotion as if embarrassed by it now.

After the phone call, Abi felt tight-shouldered and stressed, some of Irene’s anxiety adhering to her.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ she said to Mark after leaving Corinne’s boarding pass on the hall table. ‘I could do with some fresh air.’

He suggested the Devil’s Glen with its deciduous forest, the show of colour probably at its zenith now before the inevitable shedding of leaves by Halloween. So they piled into the Cherokee – all except Eva, who opted to stay at home and study – and Mark took the wheel, the car filled with silence as they passed over the Dublin Mountains crossing into the Wicklow hills.