I spend the afternoon into the evening talking to Jason. We walk along to the fort and stop in a café, where we drink multiple coffees on the terrace. He tells me he has never been married but he briefly dated a girl who had been in the year below us in school. She cheated on him and is now married with three children. He talks about it as though he has dodged a bullet, but I can see that he is lonely. He seems reluctant to let me go and, if I am honest, I’m reluctant to leave him alone. I guess he wishes his life had gone differently too. In a way, when Hannah went missing it was the beginning of the end for a lot of us. It certainly shook the town and the way everyone perceived our little sanctuary. Suddenly curfews were imposed, whereas before we could walk home in the dark with no one batting an eye, our parents confident that this sleepy little oasis held no hidden monsters. Whether they were in denial or whether they were just naive, I don’t think I will ever really know. Possibly a mixture of both. All I know is that nothing could have prepared me for what happened. That’s why when the summer was over I ran and never stopped.

Jason was one of the ones left behind, and even though he now has no ties, he doesn’t speak like a person with any designs on leaving the place. Even given the way he was treated in the couple of days after Hannah disappeared, until the police discovered her wallet and clothing fibres in Mr Morrell’s car. Jason tells me that one of the other teachers at our school has gone to prison for having indecent images of children on his computer. Mr Goss. I remember him, so friendly, always trying to be everyone’s friend. You really never know what’s going on inside people. Even when you think you know them they turn out to be someone else. Something else. I want more for Jason than this. I feel responsible somehow. As if I have the answers. As if my secrets are the reason he is still here.

‘What do you think happened to Hannah?’ I ask, seeing no point in not being direct.

‘I don’t know. I’ve thought about it a million times. I don’t believe she would have got into a car with that guy, she wasn’t stupid.’

‘You don’t think he killed her?’

‘I mean, maybe … I don’t know, I really don’t. I don’t even think she knew who he was. That’s like self-preservation 101, isn’t it? Don’t get into a car with a bloke you don’t know?’

‘Or a woman,’ I add. I don’t know why.

‘I know some people still think it was me that did it.’

‘Why do you stay here?’