‘He changed after she died; became withdrawn and depressed, everyone knows that. It wasn’t as if he had lost a sibling, so it must have been a guilty conscience. He did something to her, then made sure she couldn’t tell. He knew she was a weak swimmer. I think he may have followed her down to the river that day.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘And something happened. Obviously, I can’t prove that.’

‘For Christ’s sake, Anna. Get to the point. What did he actually do?’

‘She said he had his hand on her breast.’

‘Fuck.’ He raked his hand through his hair. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell the police?’

Because in her heart she knew it wasn’t the whole truth. In her heart, she knew it was her fault.

‘Because I had no proof. Also, he might have only meant to scare her, but lost control of the situation, or misjudged the river, and she was swept away. I’d known Nick all my life and I didn’t think he could do anything like that, and it was all so fragmented: the storm, the game we were playing, Tim kissing me. It was this weird kaleidoscope. It was only years later that my memories started to resolve themselves into something coherent. It seems so obvious now, but it wasn’t then.’

Douglas is grinding his teeth. It was the first time she’d seen him do that.

‘I shouldn’t have told you.’

‘Don’t be stupid, Anna.’

The words stripped the warmth from the room. ‘I’m not …’

‘He’s parenting my daughter, for fuck’s sake. Jesus.’ He thumped his fist down on the mattress. ‘I don’t believe it. If you knew that about him, why didn’t you say something to Grace?’

Had she gone too far? Nick had come close to the bone when he asked her why she was so keen to lay the blame at his door, but she refused to feel guilty. He was his father’s son. She waited, then said quietly, ‘Because I wanted to use the information and I was waiting for the right time.’

‘What do you mean? Use it for what?’

‘For money.’

There was a long, long silence. A door closed with a bang somewhere down the street. Anna imagined she could hear the fridge humming. Douglas got out of bed and pulled on his boxers, then went to the window, opened the curtains and looked out, his hands pressed against the frame, his shoulder blades jutting like fins. When he turned he was backlit by the street lights. The headlights of a passing car lit the room. She drew her knees up to her chest and covered her face with her hands.

‘How much money?’ he asked softly, coming to sit beside her.

‘Twenty thousand pounds down, plus a thousand a month,’ she mumbled into her palms.