‘Twenty-one hundred hours from Waddington. It’s in your neck of the woods, and less than thirty miles from the air force base.’

‘I’ll do my best to see you, Philip, but I can’t make any promises. I’m living from crisis to crisis at present.’

‘Look, you take care of your wife? After all, it was a bit of a long shot meeting up anyway, and,’ Philip paused, ‘and young Sophie didn’t like Holland House one bit, you know? She keeps on about it, doesn’t know how you guys can live there. Funny how an ordinary old house can freak a kid out.’

Will was of the opinion that Holland House was anything but ordinary but refrained from saying so.

Philip lowered his voice. ‘I think I can hear her getting out of the tub. I’ll sit her down and explain things to her. But hey, it sure was lucky that you decided not to bring her back with you? You would have had Sophie to deal with as well as Kate.’

‘You mean she is really that troubled by Whisper Fen?’

‘Sure thing, Will. She had an awful dream about it the night after we saw you. Woke up sweating and crying. It upset me too, she looked so terrified. She said she had been trying to save some bird’s eggs from getting washed away on the marsh when the tide started to come in. She tried to get back to the house, but it kept moving away from her. She said the water was over her shoes and she was calling for help, but all she could hear was the house laughing at her. It must have been pretty vivid, poor little kid. It took ages to get her off to sleep again. I expected her to have nightmares over her mum and dad, but not about some old building. Well, I better go and get showered myself, we have an early dinner booked. Take care, Will, and if there’s anything Annette and I can do, just ask.’

Will thanked him and hung up. He kept seeing the terrified expression on the child’s face in Kate’s last picture. Was he becoming paranoid too? Or had Sophie unintentionally explained what the imaginary youngster had been doing on the marsh?

He realised that Sam Page was looking at him in some concern. Will told him about Sophie’s reaction to Holland House and about her dream.

For a moment Sam said nothing, then he asked Will what he remembered about the painting, especially the detail.

He sat considering it for a while, then said that he had been so fascinated by the girl herself that he had not taken in the smaller details at all.

‘So, you wouldn’t have noticed the small nest at the child’s feet? The tide had partly filled it with water, but it contained three bird’s eggs.’