Gregor had picked up the sealskin. “Oh, look, Ruby. It’s your mummy. Come to save you.” He started to laugh, as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. Ruby tried to signal to Joanna again to stop, that she was making things worse, that she might be putting herself in danger too. She could feel Leonie’s slack body against her, shaking softly with the silent cry.

“Come on then,” said the man, and Ruby felt him take hold of her upper arm, drag her to her feet. “Looks like the three of you will have to go together, after all. Don’t worry, Mummy will be with you soon, Ruby.”

What happened next can’t have taken more than a split second. She saw a flash of dark hair as Constance swooped her head down, her mouth open, teeth bared. She bit the man on the wrist where he held Ruby’s arm, and he let go with a yelp, blood from the wound arcing out, specks of it landing on her face. Ruby stumbled away with Leonie, protecting her, comforting her as she cried and cried, the noise no more than a breath of air, but the shuddering of her body shaking them both. Joanna was there. She put her arms around Ruby, blocking out the wind, blocking out the world with her words: Don’t worry, you’re safe, I’ve got you.

Over Ruby’s shoulder, Jo saw something that made her gasp, and Ruby turned just in time to see them fall. Constance went headfirst as if in a dive, her hand tightly gripping the arm of the man they had known as Gregor, as his other arm windmilled, his eyes huge with shock. Time slowed: for a moment his body seemed suspended, feet cartoonishly scrabbling, first at grass, then rock, then nothing. His mouth opened in a scream.

As quickly as it started, the scream was cut off. Far below, the waves crashed against the rocks.

Leonie was wide-eyed.

“Mummy Daddy gone.”

A seal called from somewhere far offshore. Another, much closer, answered. The sound was loud and terrible.

CHAPTER

54

Joanna

WITHIN AN HOUR of the pair falling from the clifftop, a team of specialist officers from the mainland arrived on the island by helicopter. With direction from the coastguard, Joanna offered to help organize the search parties. Rescue boats worked alongside local fishermen to comb the surrounding areas for the bodies overnight, but found nothing. At around five AM, the pair of them freezing, huddled together in the old police station waiting for news, the sergeant turned to Jo. “You get to the hotel, get some rest. If we find anything, I’ll call you.”

The call came with the morning, yanking her from a flimsy slumber. It was fortunate that she’d been too exhausted to get undressed; she levered herself upright and into her boots in minutes.