As time went by and there was still no sign of Alice, an awful fear had taken hold of Will. He truly didn’t know how he would go on living if she did not come back.

All he knew was that he and she had argued, and that she had spent the evening with Guy deVillars. It did not occur to him, not at that point, that Guy might have done her any harm. He thought it likely that she’d told Guy about the fight and he had advised her to stay away from Will.

He took to watching Guy even more closely than before, following him in case he was seeing Alice somewhere else. When the police questioned him, he kept tilting the conversation back to Guy and Guy’s obsession with Alice. And then the witness came forward to say they’d seen Alice leaving the park and walking down towards the sea on the night she disappeared. Soon after, her dress was found and hope of her return had faded almost to nothing.

Will finished the coffee, put a handful of coins on the table, and left the café. He walked along the seafront, hands in his pockets, gazing out across the estuary, the cold wind in his face. Eventually he reached a spot from where he could see the place he’d gone to kill time while he waited for Alice the night she disappeared. It was an unassuming hollow where he’d taken the bottle of stolen vodka. He’d sat on the grass at the estuary edge and stared at the water, watching the moonlight reflected on its surface, watching the movement of the light, the caretaker’s cottage a dark silhouette against the sky to his left.

Alice had told him she would come to meet him there.

‘I’ll find you,’ she’d said, ‘and then I’ll explain.’

‘Why can’t I meet you at the caravan?’

‘Because I need you to leave me alone tonight, Will. I need you to promise me you’ll stay away.’

Her voice had been pleading. It was this that had frightened Will more than anything. She was desperate for him not to come to the caravan so he wouldn’t see the person she’d invited in. Alice knew how Will felt about Guy. She knew he would rather she was spending time with anyone else in the world, which was how Will knew her date that evening could only be with Guy. It was this that had started the argument that had very quickly turned bitter and that ended with Will throwing a handful of gravel at the caravan as Alice shut the door in his face.

He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He hadn’t meant anything by it. It was merely an expression of his frustration.