There was no time to dither. I had to get out quickly, before she reacted. I turned and squeezed between the wheelchair and the stairs, aiming for the kitchen, but as I did so Matilde came out of the living room. She was holding a metal fire poker that she pointed at me from other side of the wheelchair. She was shocked to see me: I saw the horror in her eyes.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked. ‘What are you doing in my house?’

I could have made up some excuse, but I was too wired for that.

‘I came to ask you about Gina Accardi,’ I answered truthfully.

The woman winced. It was as if a shadow had fallen over her face. She hated Gina so much she could not even bear to hear her name.

I tried to keep my voice steady. ‘I want to know the truth about Gina,’ I said. ‘I’ve been to the convent. The nuns told me you came to collect her belongings the day she disappeared. You told them she’d gone to Australia. Did she go to Australia, Signora?’

Matilde said nothing.

I continued. ‘Anna loved Gina, didn’t she? She loved Gina more than she loved you. They were going to go away together. That was their plan.’

‘No.’

I glanced to the kitchen door. It was perhaps four paces away.

‘It was. They were going to go away together and leave you behind: you and Gabriele Arnone. He liked Gina, didn’t he? And you loved Anna. That must have been very hurtful to you, Signora, when you found out they were going to desert you.’

The woman’s lip trembled. Pain was etched onto her face. I almost felt sorry for her.

‘No wonder you told Anna’s parents what was going on,’ I continued. ‘You made sure they kept Anna away from Porta Sarina that summer. But Gina was still here, wasn’t she, living in the convent a few hundred yards from here, like a thorn in your side. You needed her to be gone before Anna came back. What did you and Gabriele do to make her go away?’

I was still hoping I was wrong, hoping Matilde would tell me not to be silly and offer up some proof of Gina’s existence in Australia, but she was silent.

I felt a great sorrow in my heart.

‘We know why you wanted us to sell the villa to you, Signora. We know why Gabriele was so obsessed with the old pool. The truth has found a way to reveal itself. It always does.’

Still she said nothing and I knew then that the bones were Gina’s.

‘Who killed Gina?’ I asked. ‘Was it Gabriele? Or was it you? Did you do it together, or did you make the plans and he carried out the act?’

Silence.