‘It was her in the photo with Tiff, not you,’ Louisa said aloud, the reality dawning on her – Tiff had known Melissa’s sister, had worked with her. It was her Tiff had referred to when she’d told Louisa about her experience of being involved in a missing person investigation. ‘Did you ever find out what happened to her?’ She realised her question was futile, knowing the answer before she’d even asked it.

‘No. Oliver convinced me to stop looking, said it was destroying me, and that moving on would be what Helen would’ve wanted. And I had moved on. As much as I could. But when he wanted us to come back to Devon to branch out the business, I wasn’t happy about it. I couldn’t understand why he’d want to do it here, of all places. Why go backwards when it was he who had encouraged me to move on?

‘It was because of you, though. I know that now. You are the reason he came back. But he never banked on me meeting you.’

‘Now? He knows you’re meeting with me now?’ A surge of panic seized her.

‘No. He has no idea about this, or where I’ve been. No, I mean at your party.’

‘Oh, right.’ Louisa’s muscles relaxed a little, but then she realised what Melissa had said. ‘You weren’t at the party. No one saw you.’

‘Oh, yes. I was there. Not that Oliver knew at first. But Tiff saw me. Talking to you right here.’ Melissa cast her eyes around the beer garden.

So, she’d been right. She had seen Melissa. It just wasn’t the woman who’d been standing by Oliver on the stairs. ‘Tiff said she couldn’t remember,’ Louisa said, shaking her head. ‘She knew I was talking to someone, she remembered that, but she couldn’t say who and I was too out of it to remember.’

‘Obviously I wasn’t to know. I assumed she’d recognised me, so that’s why I dragged you away from the garden. Out of view from your guests.’

The memory now came easily – filling the gap that the self-hypnosis had left. She remembered Melissa pulling at her arm, felt the coldness beneath her feet as she was taken into the grassy area behind the pub, then to the cobbled road running adjacent to it.

I need my shoes.

No. You don’t. Just come with me.

But the stones. Ouch.

Stop whining.

‘How come Oliver didn’t know you were there – and why did he allow everyone to believe you were there?’

‘It suited his plan. He wanted to keep me at home. To keep me from meeting you. But I was too curious. Jealous, I guess. I wanted to meet you, so I followed him. When I saw you here, in the garden, and spoke to you, everything fell into place.’