And Mary Anne was the only other name listed on the police report. No, I didn’t want to interrogate her so early on, without any leverage. But I’m still riled up about my earlier revelation of wasted time, and though perhaps it’d be wise to observe a bit longer, I’m not feeling particularly wise.

It’s quiet towards the end of the lunch rush at two, when my shift’s almost over. I’m scribbling doodles on the back of receipt paper when I hear her come out of her office and then exit through the door at the back of the kitchen. I follow, my eyes needing to adjust to the whiteness of the outside, and I find Mary Anne sitting on the lounge chair behind the building. She hears my approach.

‘If you’re allowed to take a smoke break every hour then I think I should be able to as well,’ I say.

Mary Anne takes a long drag through her teeth and looks at me, gentle exasperation in her eyes. ‘Everyone in there taken care of?’

‘Yep.’

She gestures with her cigarette to the log stool opposite. ‘Then siddown.’

We’re quiet. Gulls scream from somewhere and a hot breeze sizzles past. I scrape at the blistering asphalt with my feet and can’t tell if Mary Anne is the type to appreciate the silence – probably. I’d like to break it. I look at her – she seems tired, jaded. I imagine myself at her age and wonder if I’ll have the same fatigue oozing out of every part of me.

I wonder too, brief as lightning, what Celeste might look like now, had there been no wood to be tempted into.

‘Have you lived here your whole life?’ I ask.

‘Born and raised.’

‘It seems like it’d be difficult to go to a school with so few people. Like you’re forced to hang out with them.’

‘You know, you’d think,’ she says, taking a drag. ‘But the circumstances are so odd, us being here, that I suppose we sorta …’ She gesticulates, looking for the words. ‘Bonded over that.’

‘Are a lot of the people you grew up with still living here?’

‘Oh, a few – well, come to think of it, probably most of them.’

‘Did you know someone named Roxy?’

The glance she casts up at me is so unforgiving that I shudder. She speaks slowly, dripping venom. ‘I’d heard word that some kid was going round asking questions about Roxy – didn’t realize she’d be the one under my own roof.’ She points at me with her cigarette, so near the smoke licks my nose. ‘You stay out of this business.’