Mr deVillars was charged with the murder of Alice Lang and was granted bail on condition he stayed in Guy’s flat in London and didn’t go near Severn Sands. He had to undergo the humiliation of being electronically tagged. Guy wanted nothing more to do with his father. He stayed with his own family at their house in South Gloucestershire and visited his mother every day.

* * *

Camille, Zoe and Maya continued to live in the Big House. They moved out of the attic and down into the main rooms. Without Edward’s bullying, Camille’s condition stabilised and then improved. Marnie, Lucy and John Morahan went to see her often. Camille was particularly fond of the little grey lurcher dog, Luna. Trip Two made himself useful keeping vermin at bay.

* * *

John Morahan was badgered into enlisting as a volunteer helper at Jenna’s animal sanctuary. They were always needing something fixing, or something building, and he became invaluable and spent a great deal of time there. The other volunteers asked his advice about problems they had with their cars or their lawnmowers or their cameras. John became something of a legend.

* * *

Angharad Jones promised to come and visit John – he being unable to visit her because the sanctuary wouldn’t manage without him – as soon as the weather improved.

‘I can’t be doing with all that greyness,’ she said. ‘I like my sea blue these days.’

In the meantime they stayed in regular contact on Face Time, reminiscing, she drinking port and lemonade in Majorca with her sister, he on the whisky in his bungalow in Severn Sands. They laughed a great deal, they lifted one another’s spirits and they looked forward to their reunion.

* * *

John visited the churchyard each day. He stood over his beloved wife’s grave and he talked to her about this, that and the other, how proud he was of Marnie and Lucy, how much he missed her still, and Denise, quiet as always, listened.

He’d been at the churchyard the day Alice disappeared. He’d been to talk to Denise because of the girl who’d come, who looked so like Denise used to look. He told Denise that the first time he saw Alice he thought she was Denise, returned to him somehow.

‘You could have told me about your troubles,’ John said. ‘We could have sorted things out together.’

But Denise hadn’t been one for talking about the things that worried her. John knew this. Still he wished it wasn’t so.

* * *