“Mum?” she said.

Her mother’s voice sounded crackly and broken over the vast distance:

“The police have just left,” she said. “They’ve found Caitlin. They’ve found a body. Serena, you’ve got to come home.”

Serena’s heart started to race. Her stomach knotted. How was it possible, she wondered, to have anticipated this, to have sensed that her mother must have devastating news, and yet still to feel so sick and hollow and unprepared? Over the eleven years since Caitlin had disappeared, not a day had passed when she hadn’t wondered when, if, they would ever know the truth of what had happened to her. Yet now that she stood on the edge of discovery, she felt as though the world had dropped away beneath her feet and left her in free fall.

Her mother was still talking, the words tumbling over each other, interrupted by sobs. Serena didn’t stop her, didn’t really listen to the words, only the tone and the emotion. Her mind seemed to have frozen, stuck on that one thought:

“Caitlin’s body has been found...”

“You still there, love?” It was her father now. He sounded exhausted, confused and old. Serena could hear her mother still crying in the background.

“We don’t have many details at the moment, just that the police have identified your sister from her dental records. We don’t even know where she was found. How soon can you get here?”

Serena swallowed hard, trying to focus. It seemed so difficult. All she could see in her mind’s eye was a vision of Caitlin, blond hair flying as she ran, arms outstretched, smiling and full of life.

“I’ll come straightaway,” she said. “Tonight. Tomorrow. As soon as I can get a flight.” She could see that Polly had already reached for her tablet and was searching for the next flight from Los Angeles to London. Serena’s mind started to race. She would need to hire a car when she got to Heathrow to take her from London to Gloucestershire. Could she do that now, or should she wait... She felt a desperate impatience to be on her way home but at the same time, a sliding horror that this was happening again, the police, the questions, the tantalizing and terrifying gaps in her memory...

“Have you told Granddad yet?” she said.

“No.” Her father sounded shocked that she should suggest it. There was a pause. “We thought perhaps it would be better not to...” His voice strengthened. “He wouldn’t understand anyway, not with the dementia.”

“He might,” Serena said. There was a very hard lump in her throat. “Someone is going to have to tell him, Dad.”

There was silence at the end of the line, strong with denial. Polly put her hand over Serena’s, her gaze intent and concerned, and Serena unclenched her fingers from the tight knot they had formed. She smiled shakily at her aunt.

“Well, we can talk about that when I see you, Dad,” she said. “I’ve got to go. I need to get a ticket, pack... I’ll let you know when I’m arriving.” She tried, not entirely successfully, to stop her voice from wobbling. “I love you,” she said. “Give Mum a big hug from me. I’ll see you soon.”