I ran back downstairs and into the bedroom Sean and I shared. I kicked off my flip-flops and grabbed some strappy sandals from the bottom of the wardrobe, sitting down on the bed to pull them onto my feet. Flip-flops were fine around the villa but I needed better shoes if I was going to be skulking about down in the woods. Standing up, I caught sight of myself in the mirror by the door. I looked flustered and flushed, lines of worry creasing my forehead. There was fear, too, in the eyes that stared back at me. Not just fear. Terror. The anticipation of what I was about to find out, and what it would do to me, to my family. To my life.

To all our lives.

You could have left this alone, but you chose not to. You chose to set this in motion, you laid this trap, and now it’s time to find out who gets caught: time to find out who’s left standing when the music stops.

I pulled the bedroom door closed behind me and checked my watch. Twelve minutes to get down to the meeting place. Plenty of time, if I didn’t delay.

‘Mummy?’

I jumped at the sound of my son’s voice behind me in the corridor.

‘Daniel?’ I said, a hand on my chest. ‘You startled me.’

‘You were scared.’ He grinned. ‘What were you doing?’

‘Didn’t hear you coming, that’s all. What is it?’

‘Can you help me find Daddy’s goggles?’

‘Now?’

‘Mine broke,’ he said sadly, holding up the snapped elastic strap of his own pair. ‘And now the pool water is making my eyes all red.’

‘Can we find them later?’

‘That’s what he said.’

‘I’m just a bit busy now, that’s all.’

He looked at me, standing there with nothing in my hands except my mobile. ‘Busy doing what?’

‘Things.’

‘Please, Mummy.’ He put his little hand in mine and looked up with a hopeful grin. ‘I can never find things on my own.’

‘That’s because you’re like your dad, you never look properly.’ I checked my watch: eleven minutes until the meeting time. ‘I’ll help you in a little while, I just have to do some-thing first.’

I made to move past him but he grabbed my leg with both arms, pressing his face against my side like a limpet.

‘Pleeeeeeeease! You’re the best at looking.’

‘Daniel, let go of my leg.’

He gripped a little tighter. ‘You’re the best mummy in the world.’

‘Hardly,’ I muttered.

‘The absolute best.’

I sighed. He wasn’t going to let go. ‘Come on then, let’s be quick.’

‘Yes!’ he said.

‘Where did Daddy put his goggles?’

‘Dunno. Somewhere in his stuff?’