‘There’s something else too. I spent so many years rushing around the place, busy all the time. Now the girls are older, and I’ve got past that stage, it’s like I paused and found my childhood there waiting for me. Some episodes – that night in particular – kept coming back to me.’ She shook her head. ‘Now, that probably does sound mad.’

‘Not at all. Did you ever get the impression that one of Tom’s parents might have said something to him?’

‘Gosh, I don’t know. I … Look, what I’m going to say is based on nothing. Absolutely nothing, you understand?’

‘Uh-huh.’

Nina leaned forward on her elbows. Even though the subject matter was bleak, there was something comforting about talking to Conor; her friend, her ally. ‘Like I say, I’ve been thinking about the night of the party, about the four of us in the shed. I don’t know if you remember, but Tom went back to the house.’

‘I remember it well. He wanted to get another beer, only the door was locked. When he came back and broke the news, we all went home.’

‘Mmm, but he was gone for quite a while.’

‘And?’

‘Was there a chance that he saw something?’ Nina ran a hand through her hair. ‘I’m not claiming he deliberately lied to us. There’s every chance that if he did spot anything, he didn’t appreciate its significance. He was twelve years old, for God’s sake. But what if, in later years, it all made more sense? What if he genuinely did know that Noel O’Grady couldn’t have been the guilty man?’

No sooner had the words left her mouth than she wanted to reel them back in. She shouldn’t have given voice to her half-baked hypothesis. The last person she wanted to hurt was Tom. Nina had heard it said that, even in the happiest marriages, people imagined what life would have been like with their first love. And her marriage was far from happy. Given how often she thought about Tom, she wondered if he ever thought about her. About them. When they’d had that coffee together, she’d got the feeling that he did. Then again, she was probably fooling herself. Tom was a married man with three gorgeous sons. Whatever his misgivings about politics, he’d made a success of his life. Oh, and he was a flatterer, adept at making people believe that he cared, that there was nowhere else he’d rather be.

‘Lord,’ she said, ‘I’m rambling here. I shouldn’t have … I’ve effectively accused Tom of hiding information about a serious crime and I’ve nothing to back it up. What sort of person am I? Please, Conor, forget I spoke.’