I heard the crinkling of paper as I twisted the map into a Christmas cracker and unfolded it again. I couldn’t shut myself up now. Had to keep talking.

‘There was no body when we went back to check,’ I said, dropping my voice. ‘The tree had smashed through the tomb and there was stone and mud and bits of all sorts on the ground but whatever we’d seen, it was gone.’

‘You’ve told Chivers this?’

‘I kept it a bit vague,’ I said, and if I were the type to blush, my cheeks would have burned.

Janet nodded. She reckoned I’d done right. ‘Best off out of it,’ she said. ‘Could have been anything and if you’re not certain then you don’t want to go putting yourself forward. Not if it cost old Fairfax his life.’

I must have looked like I was going to cry at that because Janet immediately took a step forward and rubbed my arm. I took a handkerchief from my sleeve and wiped my eyes and nose. ‘It was frightening,’ I said. ‘Horrible. Horrible.’

Janet nodded. I could see her struggling with herself. She wanted more from this story. Wanted some other delicious titbit.

‘Cordelia was convinced,’ I said, almost whispering. ‘Wouldn’t be told. Convinced, she was. Ready to swear blind we’d found a body. But it’s a graveyard. I mean, there’s bound to be bodies. And what do I know about the freshness of corpses?’ I shuddered at the sound of the word. ‘It could have been a hundred years old and just looked like that because the crypt had stopped him turning mushy. Who are we to say?’

‘True, true.’ A smile split her face. ‘Imagine if it weren’t old, though. Imagine if it were a body. Like in the films. And you’d stumbled on where he’d been stashed.’ She got playful then. Started being the bully she could be at school when fancy took her. ‘He might have been watching! Whoever stashed him there. Might have seen what you saw. Ooh, Felicity, you could be in bother.’

I put my hands over my ears. Suddenly I was seven years old again and she was telling me where babies came from and I was crying and begging her to stop. She didn’t when we were kids and she didn’t then. Kept right on. Kept teasing. ‘You heard anything from your friend Cordelia these past couple of days? Like you said, she’s up there alone. And she’s the one who wouldn’t let it drop. Funny place is Gilsland these days. All those people passing through, and who knows what goes on at the base. Sometimes it’s what you see which gets your eyes closed permanently …’

‘Stop it,’ I said, and I suddenly felt like I was coming down with a chill; all shivery but hot and sticky.