Although she rarely sees them, there is comfort in knowing that all around her, in the other nineteen bungalows, there are people like herself. Not that they socialise much; most of them are too immobile, or too demented. She doesn’t feel lonely, though. She loves listening to audio books, and the best of the readers seem to become her friends so that, by the end, she’s sorry to bid them goodbye.

Bella comes at the weekends, sometimes with Molly’s grandson Lewis, who appears to have grown into a fully-fledged adult without notice. There are twice-daily visits from carers, and the warden drops by every evening. She counts herself fortunate.

This evening’s carer enters with a waft of sweet fresh air. ‘Hello, my dear,’ she says breezily. ‘You look as though you could do with a bite of something hot. How does shepherd’s pie sound?’

Mention of shepherds reminds Molly of Eli and his hut. ‘In them old days the shepherds’d drag it from field to field, so’s the sheep could get the best grass,’ he’d say, settling himself on the steps, clay pipe in hand. She’d never seen anyone else before or since smoking one of these, except in old photographs. ‘Them old wheels ’on’t turn no more but just here suit me fine, my little ’uns.’ His eyes would twinkle as he took a long draw, exhaling clouds of aromatic smoke that he claimed kept away the midges. ‘Cos from here I can keep an eye on that dratted dragon.’

And they would peer down through the trees to the bottom of the valley, to where the lake glimmered silently in the last of the daylight, half-longing and half-fearing what they might see.

2

All night she tosses and turns, dreaming vividly again, only this time her dreams are populated with red boats, black waters, white bones.

Waking with a start, Molly knows what she must do. She must go back to the village.

She has never returned, not once. Not since they took her father off in an ambulance, and the police gave up their search and she’d gone to live far away with an aunt she barely knew. Even though it is only an hour’s drive, she has actively avoided the area as much as possible. It holds too many memories.

But after what the police have told them, she knows she can’t bury the memories forever. Unless she sees the place for herself one more time before she dies, she will never rest easy. The prospect of the lake half-drained of its water feels terrifying but she feels compelled to witness it, just in case.

In case of what? She refuses to let her imagination wander any further. Not yet. Not till they get the results of the tests. But she must visit anyway, to honour the memory of Jimmy.