The irony was that shutting Marnie out of his life hadn’t made the memories go away. They’d haunted him anyway, trailing him, waiting for him to be in one of those rare moments of uncomplicated happiness so they could come creeping up behind him, breathing down his neck and whispering in his ear. He remembered every detail of the aftermath of Alice’s disappearance, every microscopic thing, in the way he’d heard people recall the details of the moment before a car crash. Which was ironic, as he could remember next to nothing about the actual night.

He clearly remembered waking the morning after that fateful night when Alice never came to meet him at the seashore. He was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of boxers. He remembered crawling out of bed and discovering a deep pain on the ball of his left foot. When he examined it, he found the sole of the foot was deeply and cleanly cut, as if by glass. He had heard voices and limped into the chalet’s main room. John Morahan was there, talking with Angharad. When Will came into the room, they both looked up and fell silent. He realised something was wrong and that they had been talking about him.

‘What?’ he asked, looking from his mother’s face to John’s.

John exhaled heavily. Angharad stepped forward so her face was close to Will’s. ‘God’s sake, Will, you’ve gone too far this time!’

‘Why? What have I done?’

‘Don’t you remember?’

Will remembered being at the estuary, waiting for Alice. He remembered the vodka bottle being half empty and hiding it in the sand. He didn’t remember anything beyond that.

‘He was too wrecked,’ John said. ‘He’s no idea.’

Angharad’s eyes were blazing. A feeling of dread had begun to creep up through Will’s bones, cold as the rising tide.

‘What?’ Will asked again. ‘What did I do?’

He saw John’s eyes flicker towards Will’s hands. He looked at them. He saw that the knuckle joints of his right hand were bloody and bruised. Oh Jesus, he hadn’t hit someone, had he?

‘You punched Caravan 49,’ Angharad said. ‘Put a dent in the side. You were threatening all sorts. And I went round just now to make sure the girl was all right, to apologise on your behalf, but she’s not there – or if she is there, she’s not answering.’

‘Not there?’ Is she with Guy? Has she gone back to the Big House with Guy?

‘Wherever she is, I expect she’s shaken up,’ Angharad continued.

‘Why would she be shaken up?’

‘Because you were outside her caravan threatening to kill her, buddy,’ John said, ‘her and Guy deVillars. You were calling him all the names under the sun.’

‘You were seen,’ said Angharad, ‘and heard.’