All she had to do was wait until her eyes adjusted, it wasn’t even fully dark outside, not quite. It was an effort, though, Kym thought, to stand still, and to not think about what might be hiding in the shadows.

One-two.

Inside the house.

Getting closer.

Gradually the room resolved; the solid forms of the furniture, observable, recognisable, familiar.

One-two.

She caught her hip against the sink, but she lay her hands on the box of matches easily enough.

‘The door,’ Evie said, ‘open it.’ Kym did as she was told and stood there, breathing in the cool evening air. Matches, Kym thought, light. It took a lot of effort to open the box.

She struck the first match, lit a single candle, then a second. ‘There,’ she said.

‘Is it the same at your house, then?’ Nell asked, picking up a third candle. ‘The power?’

‘Yeah. The whole yard, I think. We . . .’ She looked at Evie. ‘We’ve been talking and – my gran thinks – we think you and Maude should stay the night with us. She says you should come back right now.’

She was expecting an argument, but to her surprise Nell simply nodded, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,’ she said.

‘Right.’ Kym said. She glanced at Evie. She wasn’t looking too good either in her opinion. ‘But before – before you go, there’s something we need to do.’

*

The shoe lay on the table, glowing in the candlelight, the leather a rich dark brown, as if it had been cleaned, polished.

‘I’ve been having a few – like, problems and – sometimes I – take stuff – sometimes.’ Evie’s voice was barely audible. ‘I don’t really know why. It makes me feel – better.’

‘Jesus.’ The poor kid. All Nell really wanted to do was hug her.

‘And no one really notices, because people trust me, and anyway – I thought no one knew, but it turns out Mum did.’ She shifted in her seat. ‘She’s not – pleased, obviously.’

Kym reached out and gave Evie’s hand a tentative squeeze.

‘And we were talking about – that – and she said about the shoe. She said it had gone missing. And I thought, I thought she’d blame me. Only she didn’t – not even a . . .’ Evie cleared her throat and sat up straighter. ‘Which was weird, you know? She didn’t even ask. Like she already knew it wasn’t me. And she said something about you not knowing what it was for. And she sounded like she, sort of – does.’

‘Carolyn?’ Nell knew she had to put the shoe back, but she was faintly repelled by the idea of picking it up, touching it, the warm leather yielding underneath her fingers.