And at that moment I see a flicker of something on Kathleen’s face. I can’t miss it. She’s not that good at hiding her feelings. And it all slots into place.

‘You already knew,’ I say, my voice little more than a whisper.

‘What?’ Ciara says. ‘No, she didn’t.’

‘She did,’ I say.

Guilt is written all over Kathleen’s face. People will ask questions. People will want to know how he managed to keep it a secret. Except he hadn’t kept it a secret, after all. One person knew, and that person, rather than confronting him and stopping it all, moved away to England and left me, left us, to our fate.

‘Didn’t you, Kathleen? You knew, all those years ago. You knew and you did nothing to stop it. We were just children and you let him do that to us. You’re as bad as he was.’

Kathleen colours. For the first time the swagger she had when she came into the house leaves her.

‘I … I …’

‘No,’ Ciara says. ‘That can’t be true. ‘She would’ve stopped it, wouldn’t you?’ She’s addressing Kathleen now.

‘I did stop it!’ Kathleen says. ‘Or I tried. I thought he did. I thought I’d got through to him. I told him … told him I knew what he was doing and I’d go to the police. Or worse, I’d get the boys onto him. They’d have sorted him out. He was terrified of that, terrified he’d get his knees done. Or a bullet to the back of the head. Said he’d stop. Said he’d never do it again.’

Ciara’s face is rigid with shock. She sits down, head in her hands. She looks like she might be sick.

‘And you took the word of a liar?’ I ask, but I don’t need her to answer. I know the answer. I know that the fear of a bullet to the head, or years in prison branded a nonce, weren’t enough to stop him and his twisted ‘compulsion’. ‘Maybe if you’d stayed, eh? Maybe if you hadn’t left and gone to England.’

‘You can’t blame me for it!’ she says. ‘That’s not fair.’

‘Not fair?’ Ciara is shouting now. ‘Not fair? Are you serious? You were the only person who had the power to make sure it never happened again and you abdicated your responsibility. So yes, we can blame you and it’s perfectly fair. And more than that, you destroyed evidence that proved what he did! Jesus Christ, Kathleen. Coming in here and talking about fair. You’ve no idea what you’ve done.’

‘I believed he would stop,’ Kathleen says, crying now. ‘He knew he had so much to lose. He knew he was doing the wrong thing. And he was my big brother, and I loved him. I needed to believe in him.’

‘You left him in sole charge of a vulnerable female child!’ Ciara shouts. ‘You knew what he was capable of and you never thought to get Heidi out of there.’