‘Oh God.’ Clodagh slumped further down in her chair. ‘If you knew what it’s like, to keep thinking over and over what you could have done differently. I’ve got this constant voice inside my head telling me I messed up. But because I can’t remember, I don’t know how I messed up. There’s this huge gap in my memory and I can’t shake off the feeling that if I could just remember it would help me understand why my sister and so many other people died that day.’

‘But you already know why,’ Rachel said. ‘The investigation into the crash was very comprehensive, wasn’t it?’

‘It doesn’t stop me obsessing about what could have been done to prevent the crash,’ Clodagh said. ‘I’m not the only one who feels like this, you know. Survivors’ guilt. We all have it. It was unbearable, at first. It still is, a lot of the time.’

She sounded sincere. Except Rachel couldn’t help thinking that whatever guilt Clodagh was living with, it hadn’t stopped her having a relationship with Vivienne’s husband or moving into the house Vivienne had lived in before her death. A cynical person might think that Clodagh Kinsella had, effectively, stolen her dead sister’s life.

‘You’ve all done remarkably well,’ Ade said, ‘considering what you’ve been through.’

Outside interviews, Ade Benjamin was loud and opinionated. But in situations like this, she was gentle and softly spoken. Rachel had seen her employing this technique several times now. She never failed to be impressed. Ade’s softly-softly approach meant the people she was interviewing didn’t expect the question that always followed.

‘Some of us have done better than others,’ Clodagh said. ‘You learn to take things day by day. It’s the only way to keep going.’

Beside Clodagh, John Goodall cleared his throat.

‘My client has been here for almost two hours now. I think it’s time we finished up, don’t you?’

‘Just one more question,’ Ade said. ‘If that’s all right with you, Clodagh?’

‘Sure.’

Ade smiled.

‘Thank you. You’ve been so helpful, we really appreciate it. I wanted to quickly ask about Robbie Fuson.’

Clodagh had looked tense, as if she’d expected a different question. But at the mention of Robbie’s name, she visibly relaxed. Which meant two things, Rachel realised. One: Clodagh didn’t know anything about why Robbie Fuson had disappeared. Two: there was something else she did know that she didn’t want the police to find out about.