‘Mrs Johnston?’

Heart thumping, her eyes fixed on the ground, Karen willed herself not to look as though she’d heard him.

Maybe he would think her hard of hearing. Lots of folk her age were.

But he didn’t give up.

‘Mrs Johnston,’ he said again.

At this point the dog came hurtling towards her and, stopping in front of her, deposited the ball at her feet.

She might manage to ignore the owner, but not the wee dog, who gazed up at her now, tail wagging in anticipation of her throwing the ball again.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Benji’s a bit demanding. He and Charlie got on well together.’

Charlie’s name disarmed her. She couldn’t walk on now. It would be more than rude to do so. Karen stood helpless, unsure what to do next. To cover her confusion, she lifted the ball and threw it, focusing as it bounced across the grass with the wee terrier scurrying after it.

‘I was terribly sorry to hear about Jack.’

There, the dreaded words had been said.

‘We used to meet him occasionally with Charlie.’

Karen still hadn’t looked at the man’s face. She forced herself to do so now.

He was tallish, older than her, probably closer to Jack’s age, with thick grey hair and blue eyes. For a moment he reminded Karen of someone, then the memory melted away. She nodded her thanks, then willed her wobbly legs to move on.

See, Jack’s imagined voice told her. You can do it.

‘Who was he?’ she muttered out loud.

Karen thought Jack laughed in response. No idea. Never seen him or the dog before.

Jack’s imagined remark prompted Karen to stop and look back, only to find neither man nor dog were now anywhere to be seen. In fact, King’s Knot was deserted apart from her.

Where had the man gone, and so swiftly?

Karen checked the various tracks, certain that there hadn’t been sufficient time for him to head up the back path that wound its way through the tree-lined slope below the castle walls.

Yet, apparently, he had.

Perhaps you imagined him, Jack offered quietly. Like the crow and the dead cat.

‘The crow was in the sitting room,’ Karen said out loud. ‘And I did see Toby.’

Jack had always managed to find a logical explanation for what he called ‘her intuition’, and most of the time Karen had accepted his take on it.

Not this time.

‘I saw him,’ she muttered as she set off for home. ‘I most definitely did not imagine him.’

Despite the odd encounter, Karen found herself buoyed up by her walk and the fact that she’d engaged with someone, however briefly, besides the women of the recovery cafe. She also found herself looking forward to the meeting tomorrow, where they would all get a chance to read her diary and help her remember everything she could about Mary’s disappearance.

Even as she thought this, a memory of what Jack had always said sprang to mind.