‘Yes. He’d gather up all sorts of scraps from his lunch and take them outside in a napkin. It sounds innocuous, but the thing is, I never found the napkins afterwards. At that point I started to wonder if there might really be another child.’ Natalie shook her head. ‘It came to a head when Davy helped me clean out one of the ponds. We took the fish out, put them in big containers and drained the pond. I scrubbed it out and we refilled it and put it back together again. When it was done, as you can imagine, it was pretty muddy around the edges. I went inside to get us some drinks and when I went back out, Davy told me that Dylan liked what we’d done. I said that was nice, he should have helped us. Davy looked really upset and said, “He’s not allowed.”’ Natalie raised her eyebrows. ‘There was something in his voice that really worried me . . . but not half as much as when I went out later that evening and found two sets of children’s wellington boot prints in the mud by the pond. I knew Davy’s, and the others were slightly smaller with a different tread altogether.’

‘So there really was another child in your garden?’ asked Fleur in amazement. ‘Did you find out where he came from?’

‘I never did. Davy seemed a bit subdued after that and told me Dylan had gone away. I questioned him about his friend, but he just said that he’d known he would go one day, he never stayed long anywhere. As far as I recall, he never mentioned him again.’

Annie thought about Natalie’s story. Of all of them, this one resonated the most. A child that never stayed long in one place. A child that remained unseen. So, despite what Natalie thought, this one was important. Each of them, in different ways, had been in contact with a transient boy. Was it the same one? Their rather vague descriptions did kind of tally. But how on earth would the intruder have known about these occurrences?

They discussed these questions, until Fleur said she ought to get home, as she was still nervous of being out late. That brought the meeting to a close, and Annie made her way home.

Her mind was still spinning when she got in, and she was glad of Andrew’s presence. After Callum had gone to bed, she would tell him about her ‘investigation’, and ask his opinion before she contacted PC Stacey Smith. Annie was afraid she’d been making too much of what could well be irrelevant and petty anecdotes. Andrew would help her put her enquiries into perspective.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jackman put down the phone. ‘It’s definitely a woman’s body in that shallow grave, and from the description, it’s very likely to be Andrea Becker.’

Marie exhaled. ‘Hardly a surprise, but nevertheless . . .’