‘Fiona, they came to us about twenty minutes ago and I’ve been out on the Green with them just now, can’t see him anywhere. Three of the lampposts are out and it’s really dark down there so we can’t see. I just got a big torch from home.’

Fiona felt her heart lurch. She yanked her coat off a peg and struggled to put it on. She was about to shut the door when she stopped then ran back to the kitchen table to grab her phone. She pulled the door to, leaving it slightly ajar, then stomped off after the boys. As she walked down the drive, she felt like a puppet. It was as if someone else was controlling her voice and the scream that wanted to escape did not. Instead she said, in a composed voice, ‘Right, where did you last see him?’

CHAPTER 39

Chapter 39

Wednesday 7 January 1880

Ann Craig sat at the window seat in her black gown and gazed out at Magdalen Green. The wind had got up and the trees along the shore were swaying. She was watching Miss Graham walk over the grass, stopping every now and then to point something out to James and Lizzie. The governess was holding onto her hat and her skirts were swirling around her. Ann lifted the field glasses and noticed that she was wearing grey. She had apologised that she had no more black clothes, but had asked for leave to go to her home in Broughty Ferry to fetch more. Ann swung the glasses east a little and noticed someone standing under a lamppost, as if watching them. The thin figure – and as she peered through the glasses she could see it was a man – was huddled, as if trying to obscure his face and body. She got to her feet and turned up the focus on the lenses. The man was holding onto a top hat and wore a long dark frock coat. She could see nothing else as his face was turned towards the sea and the children on the Green.