‘We were with the Tome History Group and I was leading a talk; suppose it was more of what you might call a ghost walk. Devil’s Point is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a Celtic sailor who jumped off the edge because he saw the sun eaten by the sea and thought he could capture its essence. Stupid story, probably made up, but people were interested. Anyway, when we got to the cliff edge, she was standing there, in a white dress, with her back to us. We called to her, panicked we were, she was so close to the edge. We crept forward, careful not to scare her but she turned and looked at us and, oh God, I remember that look and I’ll remember it till I die. It said, you come any closer and I’ll jump. So, we called the police and Rose came as quickly as she could, probably thinking how dumb we all were and, well . . .’

The old man trailed off and looked mournfully at the floor. The memory clearly gave him great pain, Georgie’s feelings for Vern softened.

‘She just jumped off?’ said Li sceptically. ‘Just like that.’

‘Like a little bird,’ whispered Vern. ‘Just one that hadn’t learnt to fly yet. Rose tried to coax her back but . . . she just jumped.’

‘The paper says they couldn’t find a body,’ Georgie prompted.

‘That’s right,’ said Vern, looking up and apparently composing himself. ‘We looked, obviously. Paper don’t say that but Rose scrambled down the cliff side as far as she could go but the girl must have hit a rock and . . . I guess the sea took her. I would have gone, too, but . . .’ Vern nodded at his knee. ‘Old football injury. I’d never have made it.’

There was silence for a while. Georgie fiddled with the zip of her jacket, not really sure what to say next. If it was true that the sea had claimed this little girl’s life then that was awful, made worse by the fact that nobody knew who she was, where she had come from. She had just been erased from the world. It occurred to her: the sea is like the dark. It can eat you up.

‘You mentioned someone called Rose,’ said Li.

‘Aye. Rose. She was the police at the time, just moved to the village. I still keep in touch with her, as it happens.’

‘Do you think you could contact Rose for us?’ Georgie asked. ‘We’d really like to talk to her.’

‘Aye, I suppose,’ said Vern, taking out a large phone. ‘I’m friends with her on Facebook. I’ll message her now.’

‘Facebook?’ asked Li, amazed.