She nods. ‘By pure luck I saw you when I was out shopping one morning in town. I didn’t know how to approach you after all of this time had passed and so I went to the hotel and gave them a note to pass on to you. I had hoped you might come and see me sooner.’

‘Why did you want to see me?’

‘I’m not well, Jasmine,’ she tells me, her eyes filling with tears. ‘The doctor said I need a new liver.’

Something about the way she speaks to me seems false. I don’t believe her story about just spotting me in town; I look completely different in my Felicity disguise. The years apart have made me more objective, I don’t look at anyone with the same naive filter that I used to. I have my parents to thank for that.

‘Well, you can’t have mine.’ Again, I sound harder than I’d meant to. She’s just an elderly woman who has lost everything – but somehow I don’t forgive her. ‘I came back to find out what happened to the missing girl, to Mandy Green. When I saw that news report I thought maybe Tim was back – or Dad.’

‘What happened on that day?’ my mother says.

I’m not an easy person to manipulate anymore. It’s like I can see the machinations, I am always looking for them. It was one of the things that drew me to Chris: his lack of ulterior motive. These past sixteen years I have felt so guilty for what I did but now, back here, I look at my mother’s forlorn face and I can’t help feeling it’s just a mask.

‘First, tell me what happened to Tim,’ I say, looking for a reaction. ‘Why do you have his car?’

‘Your father called me when you were at Felicity’s house that night. He told me that you and that Tim had a relationship, that he had been with you right under our noses, grooming you. I was beside myself; after what happened with your teacher how could we let it happen again? We offered Tim money to leave you alone. A lot of money. He didn’t need that car anymore.’ She started sobbing.

I pause, looking at my mother. She looks so lost, so sad. But I know better.

‘You’re lying, I see it now. Why have you been following me?’ I say.

She flinches and takes a step back.

‘All this time I thought you were the innocent bystander, the ignorant wife. But then they found Tim’s body in the woods and I knew that you had a bigger part in this than Dad ever told me. How did he get there?’