The colour drained from Will’s father’s face. He closed his eyes briefly. “Please, Will,” he said, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. “Please tell me that video isn’t still on your phone. I saw you delete it.”

“I deleted it because you forced me to,” Will 152replied. “But I’d already made copies and—”

His dad moved so fast that no one had a chance to stop him, grabbing Will by the front of his jacket and shoving him up so hard against the wall of the bothy that the back of his head struck against the stone with a horrible crack.

“You sick bastard!” he shouted. “Delete it! Now! Then you’ll apologize to this man and his daughter.”

“No,” Will said. His voice came out in a gasp, but there was a hard glint in his eye. “Someone has to warn them about the lighthouse. It killed Kenzie, and now it might—”

“That lighthouse didn’t kill your sister,” Will’s dad shouted. “You did!”

There was an awful silence. A look of horror crossed Will’s father’s face the moment he spoke, and I could tell that he regretted his words, but it was too late to take them back. He let go of Will and stumbled away from him. Then he took a deep, steadying breath. “Will. I didn’t mean—”

“Yes, you did,” Will said in a flat tone. “And it’s fine; you’re right. It is my fault. It’s about time someone finally had the guts to say it out loud, to my face.” 153

“Look, you clearly have your own … issues going on,” my dad said. He looked massively uncomfortable, as if he wanted to be anywhere other than here. “Just stay away from my family.”

“I’m really sorry about the boy,” Will’s dad said. “It’s no excuse but he hasn’t been right since his sister passed away. It won’t happen again.”

Dad gave a stiff nod. “Come on, Jess.”

He gripped my arm and I had no choice but to follow him back down the path. As soon as we were out of earshot, he started lecturing me about the fact that I’d gone to the hunters’ camp by myself, and this lasted pretty much all the way back to the lighthouse, where we found Rosie still crying in the kitchen, with Kate desperately trying to comfort her.

“Did you see the video?” she asked, looking up at us with a tear-stained face.