What do we do? Tell the police or keep it to ourselves? Mark said no more secrets but at what cost? If DS Forbes finds out what happened Jake could go to jail and all because he couldn’t deal with his own guilt about Billy’s disappearance. Is that fair? The man he punched had hurt children, or was planning to hurt a child. Should my son be the one punished for that?

There’s a tapping sound on the door and a soft voice drifts into the garage.

‘Hello? Jake? Are you in there? Can I come in?’

Jake jumps to his feet as a pair of hands appears at the bottom of the door and Kira lifts it above her head.

‘Oh!’ She looks in surprise from her boyfriend to Mark and me. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realize—’

‘It’s okay.’ Jake wraps an arm around her shoulder and pulls her in to him. ‘We were just …’

‘Having a chat,’ I say. ‘It’s okay. You two go in. It’s cold out here. We’ll be in in a second.’

My son looks unsure but I wave him away. ‘I’ll come and say goodbye before I go back to Gran’s.’

Jake’s lips part but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he angles Kira out to the driveway and back towards the house.

‘Do you think he’ll tell her?’ Mark asks when they’re out of earshot.

‘No, their relationship’s not stable enough to take something like that.’

‘She’s more resilient than you think.’

‘In what way?’

‘She’s had a tough life. Her mum beat her up. Her dad killed himself.’

‘I didn’t know you knew about him.’

He shrugs. ‘She told me after my dad’s heart attack. I assumed you knew.’

He looks so different in the half-light of the garage. His hair looks thinner, his eyes darker and more beady, and there are lines that stretch from his nose to the edges of his mouth. I thought I knew every inch of my husband after twenty years but there’s still so much of him that is a mystery to me.

‘Mark,’ I say. ‘How many more lies are there?’

He shakes his head. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘When were you going to tell me the real reason you didn’t get into the police?’

‘Oh God.’ He slumps forward. ‘Who told you?’

‘It doesn’t matter who told me. Is it true? Are you a sex offender?’