‘Maybe. Oh, and Grace? Please don’t tell Nick’s family about me.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I made the break with the past for my own sanity. It’s taken me a long time to recover and I honestly don’t think I could stand seeing them.’

‘I don’t know.’ It doesn’t seem logical to me. This is a villagey sort of place. She won’t be able to avoid them for long. ‘Cora can be difficult, but Tim’s OK. Why don’t I speak to him, so that it’s not such a big deal if you do happen to bump into each other.’

‘No! For Christ’s sake, Grace. Don’t you understand? I do not want to talk to them.’

I hold my hands up, bewildered by her reaction. ‘OK. OK. Sorry. I won’t say a word. But, Anna, you do realize that once you’ve told the police about your connection to Nick, they’re going to ask them about you. I can’t do anything about that.’

She looks uncertain, but then she nods, adding to my feeling that she’s making this up as she goes along, that events are catching up with her, the ripples of what happened to her sister eighteen years ago finally breaking at her feet.

‘It’s all right. It’s my problem, not yours. Leave it for as long as possible, so I can prepare myself.’

‘Is it really that bad?’

She lowers her head and I don’t hear what she whispers, so I ask her to repeat it.

‘Tim seduced me when I was fifteen.’

‘Shit. Oh my God, Anna, that’s awful. Did you tell anyone?’

She shakes her head. ‘No, and you mustn’t. But you understand why I don’t want him knowing I’m here?’

‘OK,’ I say quietly. ‘It won’t come from me.’

As I walk back, my head is spinning. Part of me can’t believe that the man I’ve known all this time could be capable of something like that. But the haunted look in Anna’s eyes convinced me she was telling the truth. Douglas could clearly see something dark in Tim that I couldn’t.

TAISIE

July 2000