He had just half risen to go and ring Matt and Liz when he saw Kate’s car swing round the bend in the lane. Wondering how he was going to face her, he realised that she had stopped the car in the tiny layby where the rough path out to the sluice and the far end of Tylers Lane branched off.

Someone got out of the passenger seat, and to his horror the unmistakable figure of Gerald Grove slammed the door and made its way out on to Whisper Fen.

Will’s fear and concern for Kate turned to anger. He had warned her to stay away from Grove, and now she was giving him lifts. It was the final straw.

Seething, he strode towards the car, but his anger melted when he saw her get out. She looked as ghostly as one of her pictures. For the first time, he noticed that she had lost so much weight that her clothes no longer fitted her. She looked at him through dark-rimmed eyes and said forlornly that her trip had not gone well, and please would he make her a cup of tea?

So, without saying a word about her passenger, he took her bags and went inside to boil a kettle.

Kate sat with her fingers wrapped round her mug of tea, tears slowly running down her face. He put his arm around her, and she looked up at him pathetically.

‘There was another child, you know. Another Holland child died here.’

His initial reaction was to shout, shake her out of this nonsense. Instead, he drew his chair closer and calmly asked her to tell him about it.

‘She fell into the well. She used to sit on the wooden cover, which was perfectly strong, so no one ever considered it a dangerous thing to do. Well, one day it gave way under her — or so everyone believed. She was alone at the time, so no one saw what actually happened.’

‘How do you know all this, sweetheart?’ Will asked, keeping his voice steady.

‘I went to see Mrs Holland today, in the nursing home. I had to. I had to know more about Whisper Fen. It has secrets, Will, and we should know what they are. Otherwise they could be dangerous, especially to the people around us.’

It had never crossed Will’s mind that Kate would visit the old woman. ‘How do you mean, Kate? What danger?’

‘Children have no place here, Will. That’s all. You have friends at the police station with children. They mustn’t ever come here, never.’

Once more Will was tempted to shake her. Knowing that this would only drive her away from him, he assented to what she had said. He had no idea how to deal with this. He had to talk to Matt.