She choked on her tears and pressed her hanky to her eyes. Down the other end of the pew Nick was with Tim and Cora. She had caught his eye earlier and he had given her a nod, like he understood. He didn’t, but he was going to. She sniffed and turned her head away. He used to be her friend, and she misses that. She can’t help looking back to a time when nothing mattered except playing their daft games. She wished none of this had happened, but it had. Izzy was in that coffin and someone had to take the blame.

When it was over, they filed out of their pews to the strains of ‘Oops! … I Did It Again’. Taisie had chosen it because it was the song of the summer. Inappropriate, but who cared; Izzy had adored it.

Later, back at the house where the mourners had gathered, pressing into their kitchen and tramping through to the garden, Taisie found Nick sitting on the old blue-and-red climbing frame. Their garden felt tiny with all these people crammed into it, and it was hot, the men sweltering in their suits. Nick looked down at her. She climbed up beside him, carefully arranging the hideous, knee-length black skirt her mother had bought her for the occasion and insisted she wore, out of respect. Izzy wouldn’t have given a toss. Taisie sat very straight and didn’t speak. She looked at Tim instead. He was talking to her grandmother, his hand on her arm, and Taisie was filled with an angry longing. It wasn’t Tim’s fault; he wasn’t to know that a delay of even twenty seconds would have had such a tragic result.

Nick said something, and she pulled herself back. ‘What?’

‘I think it was my fault she ran off. We were in the cupboard together, and I scared her. I had one of my nightmares, and she was kissing me, but I was still in the dream, so it was like there was this creature trying to suck the life out of me, and I went crazy.’

She knew all about his nightmares, although she didn’t really believe in his descriptions. Monsters coming out of the cupboard, springing at his face? Yeah, right. He made them up to get attention, and now he was using them as an excuse for what he did to her sister. She sniffed and pressed the pads of her palms into her eyes, trying not to smudge her make-up. It wasn’t her fault, it was his, and he needed to know that.

‘So this is all down to you? Izzy’s dead because of you?’

Nick jerked. ‘What? No. I just mean, she might have been upset because she was embarrassed. I think she had a crush on me.’