‘Oh, no, Will, you wouldn’t have.’

‘I threatened her.’

‘That’s what you used to be like: all mouth and no trousers. You said all sorts but you never did anything.’

‘I went out a second time, while you were sleeping. I cut my foot. What if I met Alice somewhere in the caravan park? What if I took her to the funfair and killed her? What if—’

‘No,’ Angharad said. ‘No, Will, you didn’t do anything to that girl. You wouldn’t have. I knew it and John, in his heart, knew it. Mrs deVillars knew it, too. But we knew you’d been in the caravan and things might have looked bad for you if that travelling woman had come forward or… Well, anyway. That’s why Mrs deVillars…’ She trailed off.

‘Why she what?’

Angharad sighed. ‘Why she said she’d seen Alice walking down to the estuary.’

‘I don’t understand.’

Angharad sighed again dramatically.

‘She told the police she’d seen Alice leaving the caravan park of her own accord to protect you, Will. Because she knew you were incapable of hurting Alice.’

‘She did it to protect me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Jesus.’

They were silent for a moment.

When Angharad next spoke, she said, ‘We were all trying to do the best for one another, Will. Me and John and Mrs deVillars. But maybe we shouldn’t have interfered. Maybe we should have let the investigation run its course. I don’t know. Who knows how things would have turned out if Mrs deVillars hadn’t said what she said?’

‘I still can’t believe that she’d do that for me.’

‘For us. For all of us, Will. We were like one big family, remember?’

He remembered.

‘Thing is, you weren’t really protected, were you, Will? The damage was done. You never got over what happened that summer, did you? You’re not over it now.’

‘How can you be sure I didn’t hurt Alice? How can I be?’

‘Prove it,’ Angharad said. ‘Find out who did kill Alice Lang. Make this be over and done with once and for all.’

They finished the call. Will paced the caretaker’s cottage, wiping tears from his cheeks with the back of his hand. Then he put another log on the fire. His mother was right. The only way to get through this was to end it.

He pulled himself together and called Emily.

‘I’m not talking to you,’ was the first thing she said to him. ‘Do you have any idea how much trouble I’ve been in over the whole Guy deVillars mess?’

‘I can imagine.’

‘No, I don’t think you can, Will. I’ve lost face, I’ve lost credibility, I’ve lost the trust of my favourite editor. I’ll never get another commission again.’

‘It can’t be that bad.’

‘It is.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Not good enough.’