‘So it’s a coincidence that he vanished on Saturday night? You don’t think getting in touch triggered something?’ It’s my turn to swallow hard. ‘You don’t think Nick might have felt responsible?’

He gives a bitter laugh. ‘We all do, one way or another. But we shouldn’t. Our parents were supposed to be in charge, but they were getting pissed and generally trying to forget we were there. There was all sorts of shit going on; Nick’s dad making the females behave weirdly. But I presume you know what he’s like. He was loving it; the cockerel amongst the hens.’

‘Do you think that’s what was troubling Nick? He thinks his father’s to blame in some way?’

‘I doubt it. If Nick read something else into it, that’s his problem. I wish I’d never got in touch with him.’

‘But you did, and now he’s gone.’

‘Listen, that has nothing to do with me.’

He opens his wallet and fishes out a photograph. I take it from him. It’s of a young girl. A head-to-waist shot. Someone else’s arms are draped around her shoulders, but the picture has been cropped to the size of a credit card, so that only the little girl features. She looks happy – she’s grinning – but there are blue shadows under her eyes, and her lips are chapped. She doesn’t look healthy. I hand it back to him and he carefully replaces it in its pocket.

‘It seems odd that Nick’s never told me any of this.’

‘He probably wanted to forget it. I did too. It seriously screwed our family up. My older sister went completely off the rails. She was never home, and a pain in the arse if she was. She …’ he checks himself.

I wait, but he doesn’t finish the sentence. ‘God. Poor thing.’

‘Yeah, well. Fifteen is a bad age for your life to go tits-up. She hasn’t spoken to any of us since she left home. We hear things occasionally. She married some guy, but he topped himself.’

I wince at his terminology. ‘I’d like to speak to her.’

‘Be my guest. I don’t know where she is, though.’

‘You’ve never tried to find her?’ Some brother he’s turned out to be.

‘She’s made it clear that she doesn’t want us near her so …’ He raises his hands. ‘You’ll have to do some digging. Her name’s Taisie Wells. Taisie short for Anastasia. I suppose she might have taken her married name, though.’

‘Thanks.’ I say drily. I start to get up.

‘So you really have no idea why Nick left?’ Alex says.

‘Nope.’ I pull on my jacket. ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me?’