‘I shouldn’t say but seeing as you aren’t from round here anyway, I guess there’s no harm. It was someone who had been there a few years so it couldn’t be her.’

I hope this isn’t the limit of her information as I already knew that bit of gossip. Thankfully, I can see that she has more.

‘Do they know who it is?’

‘Not exactly, but they did find some dog tags. Neil didn’t get a look at them so that’s all I know,’ Jenny says excitedly.

I feel a little sick as I hear about the dog tags. That could be a coincidence, surely.

‘There’s no way it’s Mandy Green, that’s all I know. Maybe there’s a whole load of bodies up there in those woods,’ Claire says.

‘Don’t be so morbid!’ Jenny laughs.

‘Was it a girl’s body?’ I don’t want to press her any more about the dog tags directly; I think it would look weird. I’m almost certain Jenny is telling us absolutely everything she knows just to keep our focus on her. I get the impression she is very rarely the centre of attention.

‘Probably. Who knows? The killer must have dropped the tags in there,’ Jenny says dismissively, waving her hand. She watches as her child destroys another child’s sandcastle.

‘Do you keep in touch with anyone else from school?’ Claire asks me.

‘No, not at all.’

‘What about that girl you were always hanging around with – the little hippy chick?’ Jenny says.

‘That was Jasmine Burgess. Oh, I remember her. She was the one who had that affair with the English teacher. What was his name?’ Claire says.

‘Nah, he assaulted her, didn’t he? #MeToo and all that. Do you ever see her?’ Jenny asks.

‘I haven’t spoken to anyone from school since I moved away. Apart from Jason Evans, I spoke to him yesterday.’

‘Oh, he was an oddball for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one who took that Mandy Green girl,’ Jenny says confidently.

‘Have the police even questioned him?’ Claire asks.

‘Didn’t need to. One of the guys in Neil’s squad was in a pool tournament with him on the night she went missing. He probably would have been suspect number one otherwise,’ Jenny confides.

‘So he had a proper alibi and you still think it was him? That hardly seems fair,’ I say, trying not to sound too judgmental.