‘Sure. Is everything all right?’

‘Perhaps we could go somewhere a bit more private?

‘Of course.’

She followed me down the outdoor steps and into the garden, the grass soft beneath my feet. We sat at either end of a bench made of clean white stone.

‘I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, Jen, but apparently the three boys had a big falling-out this afternoon. All a bit of a shame, really. Daniel said they left him alone in the house, and he also thinks . . .’ I hesitated, knowing I was on shakier ground now. ‘He said something else as well.’

‘What?’

‘He couldn’t be sure, but he thinks they might have gone off in your hire car. For a drive.’

Jennifer frowned.

‘A drive?’

‘He couldn’t find them anywhere, and he said he was in his room when he heard a car pull up on the drive, and then Jake and Ethan walked in.’

‘He heard a car?’

‘That’s what he said.’

‘Didn’t see anything?’

‘No. His bedroom looks out over the garden, rather than the drive.’

‘Hmm,’ Jennifer said. ‘Well, that doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that Jake and Ethan would do. Jake’s far too young to drive, for a start. It doesn’t sound like my boys at all.’

Yes it does, I thought, wondering how she could claim to be so unaware of what her sons were like. It sounds exactly like your boys.

‘Can you raise it with him? With Jake?’

‘That’s not a good idea.’

‘Why not? You can’t have him driving around the French countryside. Who knows what might have happened.’

‘The truth is, he gets very upset sometimes when he feels he’s in trouble. Very upset. Especially when he’s accused of something he hasn’t done.’

‘I understand that.’

‘And he didn’t do what Daniel’s saying.’ Her voice was quite firm, no room for manoeuvre. ‘He didn’t do those things.’

‘Daniel was quite specific—’

‘He’s mistaken. I’m sure Daniel was upset, and I’m very sorry about that, but I’m absolutely certain that my boy didn’t do what he’s saying. This estate is a very big place, there must be a hundred hiding places here. It sounds like a game of hide-and-seek that just got a bit out of hand.’

‘All the same, could you ask him? See what he says? Daniel was really very upset when he thought he’d been abandoned – he couldn’t find Alistair either.’

‘Like I said,’ she replied, her voice taking on a harder tone, ‘he doesn’t take it well when he gets accused of things.’

‘And like I said, Daniel was quite specific.’

She hesitated, looking around to make sure no one was eavesdropping.

‘I need to tell you something. So you understand.’

‘OK.’