There it is, then. His stomach clenches. She’s here for a reason. She may even have lain in wait, or spotted him and followed him, taking her chance while there was no one else to witness their encounter. How many years has it been? Nearly eighteen. Over half his life.

He swallows hard. ‘What secrets?’

‘Oh come on, Nick. You know what I’m talking about.’

He pulls himself together. She’s caught him on the back foot, and he needs to regain control. ‘Actually, I don’t. Perhaps you’d better spell it out for me.’

‘If that’s what you want. Once upon a time there was a girl. Let’s call her Isabel. She was a sweet child, but fragile. One day, she found herself shut in a cupboard with a boy she trusted, an older boy.’

He laughs. ‘Not that again. We were kids. We were playing Sardines. It was nothing. I wouldn’t have told you if there had been anything wrong with it.’

‘You told me yourself that you kissed her.’

‘That’s not true, Taisie. What I said was that she was kissing me when I woke up.’

‘She also said you groped her breast. Why would she lie?’

Why would Izzy have said that? He can’t believe it. Taisie was the manipulative one, not her little sister. Izzy was always so honest. ‘I don’t understand. When did she tell you that?’

She shrugs. ‘Right afterwards. She was as white as a sheet.’

He stares at her, bewildered. ‘You spoke to her? You never told me; you never told anyone.’

‘I was protecting you.’

She put her hand on his arm and he recoiled. ‘Protecting me? Why the hell would you do that? You hated me.’

‘I didn’t hate you. I was hurting, but you were still my friend. It was chaos. Don’t you remember? I wasn’t thinking straight.’

He backs away from her, his mind churning, trying to make sense of this new information. ‘If you thought I’d had anything to do with Izzy’s death, you would have told your parents, or the police.’

‘I was messed up. And the Ritchies and the Wellses, we were like family, weren’t we? I’d have been pulling down the whole edifice of my childhood, and I didn’t have the courage. It was too late anyway.’

‘Why didn’t you try to stop her?’

‘I couldn’t. I got distracted by one of the others; and how was I supposed to know she’d go outside? It was pouring with rain.’

His eyes bore straight into hers. ‘Which others?’

‘Pansy or Freya; I don’t remember which now. But they caught me. I tried to tell them I wasn’t playing any more but they wouldn’t let go of me.’

‘OK. Stop. I’m not listening to this crap.’ He tugs on Toffee’s lead. ‘I’m going.’

‘I’m not finished.’