The kitchen is small and old-fashioned, and as soon as Lorna walks in she heads straight for the window. Through the glass she can see the mess in the garden: the abandoned digger, the dug-up patio slabs, the huge hole in the ground, and the dense woods, a brooding backdrop. It gives her the heebie-jeebies. She senses Saffy at her shoulder but she doesn’t turn. It feels as though someone is gently blowing on the back of her neck, and she shudders. At the end of the garden, just before the woods, there is a large tree with purple flowers and a thick branch that looks like an arm reaching towards the house. She takes a sharp breath.

‘What is it, Mum?’ Saffy asks.

‘That tree . . .’ She shakes her head. The purple petals. She used to put them in her bucket and mash them with water. She remembers that. ‘I played in that garden,’ says Lorna. ‘It’s very familiar to me. I think . . . I think the tree might even have had a rope swing once. I used to pretend to make perfume with its flowers.’

She feels Saffy’s warm hand squeezing her shoulder. ‘Wow, Mum.’

Lorna turns to her daughter. ‘Are you happy to stay here? Knowing this happened?’

Saffy looks pale and a little tearful. ‘I . . . We haven’t got anywhere else to go. And before this I loved it here.’

Lorna swallows the sudden lump in her throat. ‘I know.’

‘And it happened a long time ago, didn’t it? Not as long ago as I was hoping.’ She flashes a watery smile. Then her eyes go to the window. ‘I wonder who they were.’

‘Maybe the police will find out through dental records. Can we go outside? I’d like to take a closer look.’

‘Now the police have finished we can. I’ll grab the back-door key. Hold on a sec.’

Saffy moves slowly, her shoulders hunched, and Lorna longs to wrap her in a cuddle.

‘Here we go.’ Saffy is back and Lorna moves out of the way so she can open the stable door. They venture into the garden together. The sun is going down now and the trees cast shadows on the lawn.

They make their way over the uneven ground to the gaping hole – it’s very deep, and as they get closer Lorna can smell the damp soil. ‘The police have checked there are no more bodies?’ she asks. She feels like she does when she occasionally visits a graveyard, aware of all those corpses below her feet even though she knows these bodies have been taken away.

Saffy nods. ‘They had special dogs here. There are no more, don’t worry . . .’

Lorna places her arm around Saffy’s shoulders. ‘Come on, let’s have that cup of tea and then you can show me my room.’