Marnie’s father, John Morahan, had retired from his position as caretaker the previous year, but still spent most of his days at Channel View, pottering around the funfair in his overalls, hoping some small mechanical issue would arise that required his attention, or chewing the fat with Edward deVillars. Nobody understood the machinations and the temperament of the antique carousel better than John, and Mr deVillars liked having him around, ostensibly in case of a problem but really because he enjoyed John’s company. Although there was a wide disparity in their backgrounds, education and social standing, the two men were of a similar age and shared a passion for cricket.

They both liked to tell the story of how they first met many years earlier. John, living in a static caravan parked on farmland with Denise and baby Marnie, was working as a mechanic for a haulage company. He had spotted Mr deVillars on the farm track when he was driving home from a late shift in the early hours of a dark winter’s morning. Mr deVillars’ told him that his car had broken down and he’d been stuck for hours. It had been a stroke of luck – or fate, perhaps – that John happened to be passing.

John, tired as he was, had taken Mr deVillars back to his car and looked under the bonnet. He tweaked a couple of wires, told Mr deVillars to turn the key and, miraculously, the car had started. John had refused to take any money, so Mr deVillars had returned to the farm the next day with a crate of beer to show his gratitude. John had accepted the gift on the condition that Mr deVillars came into the caravan to enjoy a bottle with him. From these tentative beginnings a warm friendship had sprung that culminated in Mr deVillars offering John the caretaker’s job at the holiday park, along with the opportunity to move his little family into the grace-and-favour cottage, a huge step up from the static caravan in the farmyard. It was an arrangement that suited everyone. The Morahans had a proper home in which to live, John had a steady job that he enjoyed, and Channel View had a highly qualified and motivated caretaker with engineering skills. Mr and Mrs deVillars had been looking for someone exactly like John Morahan for months. Marnie’s father never tired of commenting on how the two men’s paths had been destined to cross.

John would never have admitted it, but he and Edward deVillars were as close to being best friends as it was possible for men like them to be. And for all that her father was a difficult, grumpy old sod, Marnie was glad he was at Channel View that summer to keep an eye on his adored granddaughter and to lend a hand, if a hand was required.