Mohktar said, ‘How do we know what is a dream and what is the subconscious mind working in ways we can never understand, Mrs Campbell?’

Fleur looked at them both. This wasn’t the reaction she had expected, at least from Mohktar who was a policeman and dealt with facts.

There had been many days over the years when Saffie had seemed near to Fleur. In the moments between sleeping and waking on a Sunday afternoon in an empty house. Looking over a school wall at small children in tiny pleated skirts playing hopscotch on concrete. Listening to Mahler in the garden with Fergus as the sun turned the leaves of the copper beech gold, and in the tiny, visceral moment a small hand slipped into hers. Waking, waking, suddenly in the suffocating dark with your heart banging as if someone had whispered a name in your ear and the thought: Why? What reason could anyone have for killing you, darling? As if the clue, the vital clue lay in the remembering.

Dr Janus bent for her medical bag. ‘If it is all right with you I will go and examine your daughter on my own.’

Fleur nodded. ‘Of course. She is in the same room as before, Dr Janus.’

When she had gone, Mohktar said, leaning towards Fleur, ‘Mrs Campbell, is it perhaps that you are worried about what Nikki might remember?’

Fleur looked past him at the sea. ‘When Nikki was questioned all those years ago she said she got out of the window to look for Saffie. But it was a very long afternoon for a five-year-old to stay inside. We don’t know how long Nikki might have been out on the beach. I know she would have got bored. She wouldn’t have settled to anything until she knew where Saffie was and what she was doing.’

‘The amah said at the time that when she brought my tea in, at about five thirty, Nikki was in the bathroom and she was sure she did not go out again. At the time I believed her, but the amah went off to have a shower, so how could she be sure? The twins were so quick, they darted about like fish…what if Nikki had gone outside again and seen someone…’ Fleur hesitated.

‘Someone she knew?’ Mohktar finished quietly.

Fleur’s eyes met Mohktar’s. ‘What if she had been confused by the actions of someone she knew behaving strangely?’

‘How did she seem when you woke up?’

‘Anxious, in case I was cross; desperate for me to wake up. She said Saffie had been gone a long time and something in her voice jerked me awake. I looked out of the window and saw the light was going and I pulled my clothes on and we both rushed out to look for her…’

Mohktar watched Fleur’s hands flutter and clasp each other.

‘This is very hard for you, Mrs Campbell…I regret to ask these questions.’

Fleur smiled faintly. ‘I know, DS Mohktar, but it’s your job.’