Steph felt even more silly now. ‘I knew that, I just spooked myself, that’s all.’ She gave a look which dared him to challenge her. ‘Anyway, what are you doing creeping around in the woods?’

He chuckled. ‘Not exactly creeping around.’ He turned and pointed over to his left. ‘That’s my house right there. I was coming out to top up the bird feeder when I saw you running right this way.’

Steph looked beyond him and sure enough, there was another lodge-styled house sitting in amongst the trees, this one smaller than the other brothers’ houses, but one whose finish stood out above those for holidaymakers on the resort. There was a laurel hedge and a wooden gate opening out onto the forest from the back garden.

‘Have you been here all afternoon?’ she asked.

‘No. I was out with Owen earlier.’

‘Owen?’

‘Yeah. We went into town. A bit of time together. I haven’t seen him for several months. It was good to catch up, just the two of us.’

‘Actually, I saw Owen and Natalie a little while ago. He said about his car.’ She purposely didn’t expand, waiting to see what Harry had to add.

‘His car?’

‘Yeah, his car.’

‘The one that decided to trigger its own immobiliser?’

Steph felt a glimmer of relief. Owen could possibly be telling the truth, or, of course, they could both be sticking to a story they’d concocted between themselves. ‘He said it had to go into the garage.’

‘Fortunately, it’s just the old Audi we all share,’ said Harry. ‘It used to belong to my dad. Mum didn’t want to get rid of it, so we kept it, and now if anyone just wants to nip into town we take the Old Bastard.’

‘The Old Bastard?’

‘That’s what Dad used to call it. He didn’t like it but he’d already spent the money and, Dad being Dad, was too pig-headed and too tight to trade it back in for something he did like. In fact, I think he liked hating it. He liked hating a lot of things.’

‘One old bastard deserves another, I suppose,’ said Steph.

Harry grinned. ‘Something like that. Anyway, the car had been left in town earlier this morning. Mum had gone in to meet a friend for coffee and they went off in her friend’s car, and then Mum was dropped straight home. So Owen and I went in to get it.’

Steph felt the earlier relief slide away. ‘The car was in town on its own all day, then?’

‘I suppose so. Why?’

‘Nothing. It doesn’t matter.’ She couldn’t say out loud what she was thinking, that one of them could have been driving the car that ran her off the road. She forced a reassuring smile.

‘Anyway, I hear from Dominic that your car needs a bit of TLC.’