We take Toffee for a quick walk round the Common. In the distance I spot the telltale police ribbon cordoning off an area close to the pond. I steer Kai in the opposite direction. I wish Lottie was here. It would be so much easier with Kai if she was around. As it is, he walks along beside me, his shoulders slumped, his hands deep in his pockets, responding politely to my attempts at conversation before lapsing back into silence.

We get home and I check the landline for messages. Nothing from Tim. After lunch it’s time to go to the hospital.

Kai and I follow the signs to ICU and wait in Reception. Down the corridor a police officer stands guard outside one of the rooms. Kai can’t take his eyes off him. After a few minutes we’re collected by a nurse, told that we can see Anna and are given five minutes. The nurse holds the door open for us and points to a bed at the end. Anna is lying there, her head swathed in bandages, attached to a drip, a heart monitor tracking her pulse, oxygen whooshing in and out. Kai’s hand tenses in mine and I give it a squeeze. Harry and Paula Foreman rise to greet us. Harry is dressed in dark-brown trousers, green shirt and mustard V-neck, Paula in dark jeans and a navy-blue-and-white striped top. They are a lot older than I expected, closer to eighty than seventy. I wonder how they are going to cope.

‘Come here, darling,’ Paula says.

Kai walks straight up to her, wraps his arms around her and allows himself to be tightly hugged. Harry ruffles his hair with the intimacy of a long-standing fondness, and I feel relieved of a burden. Kai will be safe with them. Paula leads him to his mother’s side and rests her hand on his shoulder. He looks up at her for reassurance and she nods. He takes Anna’s hand, lacing his fingers through hers.

‘Mum,’ he says, his voice wobbling. ‘Please wake up.’

‘How well do you know Anna?’ I ask, when we’ve left ICU.

Harry flicks a look at his wife. She nods, understanding.

‘Shall we go and get you a comic?’ she says to Kai.

‘We made a decision,’ Harry says, once they’re out of earshot, ‘after our son’s death, that we would maintain a civil relationship with Anna, for Kai’s sake. We don’t like her and, quite frankly, we blame her for what happened to Ben, but both of us love that boy dearly. We don’t want to lose him.’

‘Your son killed himself?’

‘Yes. She made his life a misery.’

I feel defensive on Anna’s behalf. ‘Nothing is that simple. You can’t know for sure what went on between them.’

Harry shrugs. ‘All I know is that he changed when she came along.’

‘Didn’t you change when you met Paula?’