But Jake and Ethan still didn’t mind him tagging along while they went exploring the grounds of the holiday house. They had been everywhere, down to the games room, and the gym, out to the garage, the sauna, the woods and the little gazebo. They were good at exploring. They had found a secret room under the pool with loads of pipes and barrels of stuff, and they had eaten grapes off the grape plants (even though Daniel said they shouldn’t) and then Ethan had almost caught a lizard but its tail had come off in his hand and it was disgusting but also funny. He ran around with it, waggling it in their faces like it was still alive. Daniel laughed along, but he didn’t really want the lizard tail to touch him.

Awe and fear. It was a dangerous combination.

The three of them were sprawled in the shade of a tall oak at the bottom of the vineyard. The sun was intense, a baking, non-stop heat that stuck the T-shirt to Daniel’s back and made his glasses slide down the bridge of his nose.

Jake leaned forward, his long dark fringe falling over his eyes. ‘Do you want to see something cool?’

‘Yeah,’ Daniel said automatically.

‘Not here. Come on.’

The older boy stood up and led them deeper into the woods, Ethan following Jake and Daniel bringing up the rear.

When they had gone further in and the view from the villa was fully obscured by trees, Jake reached into his back pocket and produced a wedge of hard black plastic, a line of metal along its length. He held it out in the palm of his hand.

‘D’you know what this is?’

Daniel wasn’t really sure, but he didn’t want to look stupid in front of the two bigger boys.

‘Erm . . . penknife?’

‘Penknives are for little kids. It’s a lock knife. Look.’

He pressed a stud on the handle and pulled a blade out until it locked into place with a snap. The shining steel wasn’t much longer than Daniel’s index finger, but it was wide and sharp and curved to a wicked point like an animal’s fang.

‘What’s it for?’

Jake frowned.

‘Tactical knife, doofus. For hunting, skinning animals, sharpening things, stuff like that. Do you want to hold it?’

Daniel looked at the point, the sharpness of the blade, and thought: No. I don’t. I really don’t.

‘Sure,’ he said, and held out his hand.

The expression on Jake’s face changed and he lunged suddenly, bringing the knife down in a shallow arc as if to stab the point into Daniel’s palm.

The smaller boy flinched, crying out in alarm.

Jake pulled back at the last moment, an inch before the blade plunged into the younger boy’s hand. He and his brother dissolved into honking laughter.