I release my breath as I disconnect the call. An image flashes into my mind, unwelcome and quickly thrust away. A knife. Blood. A gasp of pain and surprise. The last thing I need is the press digging into my past.

TAISIE

July 2000

THREE DAYS IN AND TAISIE FELT SO MUCH BETTER. IT was a little to do with Nick and a lot to do with his father. Unlike the boys her age who tried too hard, Tim was just Tim. He had this magnetism, this aura. She had sort of forgotten how old he was, or she’d matured since she’d been here, and maybe he had even regressed. The twins were dead impressed that he was in the music business, and kept wandering past him in their bikinis, singing snatches of pop songs, hoping he’d discover them. He managed a couple of bands that Taisie had slightly heard of, but he knew EVERYONE. The stuff he came out with: even Lorna’s eyes were out on stalks.

The first evening that Taisie spoke to Nick at dinner time, he had been so surprised he almost jumped out of his skin. He hadn’t been expecting it at all. She just said, ‘Can you pass the salt, Nick?’ and he looked stunned, like she had been away for three years. He got the picture quickly enough. He only existed in the company of adults. He was sitting opposite her and next to Izzy, who was so relieved to be able to talk to him she was chatting like a magpie. It was obvious she had a crush. So sad. Nick was hardly going to be interested in a pale little thing like her.

‘A restaurant,’ Angus was saying. ‘What kind of restaurant?’

Tim lit up, like he’d been given his cue. ‘Rock themed. I’ve got some great people involved, producers and musicians who want to put their name to it. Obviously, Tom Gale is my big endorsement.’

‘Restaurants are extremely risky,’ Angus said.

The voice of doom. Taisie glanced at Nick automatically, forgetting they weren’t communicating. The twilight heightened his resemblance to his father. It made her stare. He caught her eye, then looked away, back at Angus. She felt a stab of unhappiness.

‘But there are an awful lot of them doing well,’ her dad said. ‘It’s a risk, but I think Tim’s plans are really interesting. It’s a zeitgeisty kind of place.’

Angus leaned back in his chair, his shirt collar falling away to reveal a tanned throat and lots of chest hair. In the swimming pool the hair on his shoulders would float on the surface while he swam. Taisie was ashamed of her fascination with this. It had never bothered her as a little child.

‘Zeitgeisty, Sean?’ he repeated.

‘Yes. Catching the wave.’

‘And what about when the wave’s gone?’