‘A thing?’ She screws up her nose. ‘A thing?’

‘A brief relationship – a fling – I don’t think your dad thought it was serious, but—’

‘No, no they didn’t have a fling.’ She shakes her head. She would have known. ‘That can’t be right. He would have told me.’

‘I’m only telling you what Tegan told me. That your dad broke it off with her the day he died. That’s where he’d been that evening, to Tegan’s apartment, to tell her it was over. She was gutted, thought he loved her, that it was more than it was, and—’

‘This can’t be right.’

‘Think about it, Alice – Henry wasn’t with him.’ He tries to take her hand, but she shakes it free. ‘Your dad never went out without him. Tegan was scared of dogs.’

She shakes her head again. ‘No, you’ve got it wrong, Leon.’

He runs his hand over his chin, takes a deep breath. ‘There’s more, Alice, much more—’

‘I don’t think they’re coming.’ It’s Christine. ‘The police, I don’t think they’re coming.’ She’s awake, standing by the window, her voice a blade cutting off Leon and Alice’s conversation. ‘It’s been well over an hour since Faith called them.’

‘What, Leon?’ Alice whispers, clearly trying to ignore Christine’s invasion. ‘What else is there?’

‘The rain has stopped,’ Christine goes on, turning to Leon and Alice. ‘Maybe we should go out there now. Go down to the jetty and wait for the police.’

‘Or, Christine,’ Leon snaps, ‘we can stay here where it’s safe.’

‘Leon?’ Alice’s eyes are locked on his. But Christine is heading over to them with quick steps, and Lori and Faith are sitting up now, Faith stretching her arms above her head and yawning.

‘I’ll tell you everything later, Alice. I promise,’ he whispers, as guilt surges through him that he’s still keeping things from her. But he can’t say any more, not now Christine is beside them, her plump body a shivering wreck. The words he wants to say to Alice have stumbled and fallen in a cluttered heap in his already confused brain.

Alice

‘When will they be here?’ Christine’s voice is rising in volume; she wrings her hands. ‘The police – when will they be here?’

‘I’m sure they’re doing their best,’ Alice says, Leon’s words playing over in her head. Did her dad have an affair with Tegan? She tries to recall times she was with the two of them. Had looks passed between them that she’d missed? Had there been a spark of chemistry she didn’t register at the time? She can’t recall anything of the kind. Perhaps she hadn’t wanted to see it. Had she been in denial, not wanting to share her father with anyone?

‘So where the hell are they?’ Christine continues, her body twitching.