‘She thought her daughter was lost and she was grateful that I found her, that’s all.’

‘She was hugging you.’

‘So? She was upset. She was grateful. You’d have been the same if Lucy had been missing and Russ had found her.’

‘It was more than that. It was . . . She said something to you, I saw it.’

He sighed and shook his head. ‘What is this all about, Kate?’

‘What about your wedding ring?’

‘What about it?’

‘Do you take it off when you’re with her? Is that what you do?’

He rubbed absently at the bare fourth finger of his left hand.

‘No.’

‘So where is it?’

He stood and moved nearer to the cliff edge until he was only a few feet away from the drop.

‘There’s a little gym downstairs next to the games room – have you been down there? I was doing some weights the other day and I didn’t want to scratch the gold. So I took it off and put it on the side, on one of the speakers. Must have slipped my mind when I finished my workout. I’m sure it’ll turn up.’

It was a long and convoluted answer to a question I had only obliquely asked.

The truth is simple, I thought. Lies are complicated.

‘When did you use the gym?’

‘I don’t know . . . yesterday, before we went to the beach?’

‘You don’t know, or yesterday? Which is it?’

‘Yesterday.’ He nodded. ‘Definitely.’

‘And where is it now?’

‘Somebody must have picked it up.’

‘Somebody?’ I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

‘There’s only a few places it could be, it can’t have gone far.’

I took his wedding ring from my pocket and held it out to him, the gold shining in the late afternoon sun.

‘Can you guess where I found this?’

‘In the gym, probably.’

I waited a beat, winding up for what I hoped would be a knockout blow.

‘In Rowan’s bedroom, in her bedside drawer.’

He stared at me for a moment.

‘Why were you looking through your friend’s bedside drawer?’

‘Because I was looking for something!’ I said, my voice rising. ‘And I found it!’

Without thinking, I threw the ring at him, hard. It bounced off his chest and fell to the ground, rolling towards the edge of the cliff.

He crouched to pick it up, rubbing the dust and dirt off before slipping it onto his finger.

‘Rowan must have found it in the gym; she was probably just holding on to it for safekeeping.’

‘Is that the best you can do?’

‘This is getting ridiculous, Kate.’

‘Is it?’

‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick.’

‘Liar! You’re a bloody liar!’

He looked down.

‘No,’ he said softly.

I was getting nowhere – he was giving nothing away. It was time to play my trump card.

‘I saw the messages on your phone.’