He held the watch out to Tim. His hands were shaking.

‘What the fuck is this?’

Tim still had his hands up in front of him. He took another step back away from Tom.

‘Listen, I can explain,’ he said. ‘I was trying to clean it off, and—’

‘I can see you were trying to clean it off!’ Tom shouted. ‘But where the fuck did you get it?’

‘I…no, I…’

Tim’s eyes were wide. His normally calm voice was a panicked, stuttering mess. He took another step back and shook his head.

‘Back at the tent, I knew I saw something,’ Tom continued. ‘I saw something in your eyes when we said Gary was missing. I thought maybe you’d heard something in the night. Then up on Hayworth Tor this morning you were about to say something to me, but your dad interrupted us. Now there’s this, and—’

‘I found it,’ Tim said suddenly. His eyes flicked from Tom’s face to the watch held in his hands.

Tom, who’d been on the verge of taking another step forward towards Tim, paused and stared at him. Tim started nodding his head.

‘Yeah, I found it on the grass this morning,’ Tim said. ‘By our campsite. I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want to scare anyone.’

Tom stared at the nodding boy in front of him. His eyes were wide and desperate, and in that moment Tom was sure he was lying.

Tom grimaced and took another step forward, and as he did so Tim’s eyes flicked up and over his left shoulder. Then they shot back to Tom.

‘No!’ Tim yelled as Tom took another step forward, and Tom thought he was yelling at him until he heard heavy footsteps crunching across the ground behind him.

Tom’s years on the football pitch and the many times he’d spent crouched on the school field waiting for the starting gun had given him quick reactions. At the sound of the footsteps he whirled to his left, spinning quickly away from Tim, but just as he was turning something that felt like a steel rod smashed into his left shoulder. Tom was thrown backwards. His legs caught against a tussock and he fell, landing on his back. His landing was cushioned by the grass, but his right thigh slammed into a rock and sent a sharp pain shooting up his leg. His left shoulder throbbed and burned.

Mr Stevens was standing a few feet away from Tom, looking down at him. He held a walking pole in his left hand. There was no discernible expression on his face. As Tom watched he took two quick steps across the grass.

‘Dad, no.’ Tom heard Tim’s voice up and over to his left. It sounded thin and scared.