‘Only a couple of minutes. I hurried. Like you said, I didn’t have a lot of time left. Things like this are why I like being early.’

‘Fair enough,’ I say. ‘So when you left Tesco . . . ?’

‘I went back to Viking Gardens. I got there in time – I checked my watch: it was just before eight.’

‘Was there anyone on the road?’

Rory thinks, rubbing at his nose. ‘There was an old man walking his dog – a smallish white dog. He was heading out of Viking Gardens. He nodded to me. I don’t think there was anyone else.’

Easy to check, again. ‘So then what?’

‘I went down the road looking at the house numbers till I found Aislinn’s house – it’s number twenty-six. I rang the bell . . .’

He trails off. I say, ‘And?’

‘She didn’t answer the door.’

This time the blush comes up hot and fast. I can feel Steve behind the glass swaying towards that blush, positive that it means he was right and Rory Fallon is a holy innocent. I’m not so sure. That blush could be the memory of humiliation, or it could be the lie showing.

‘Huh,’ I say. ‘Weird. What did you think was going on?’

Rory’s head is going down. ‘At that stage I just thought Aislinn hadn’t heard me. I knew the bell was working – I could hear it going off inside the house – but I thought maybe she was in the toilet, or she’d gone out the back for some reason.’

‘So what’d you do?’

‘I waited a minute and then knocked. Then I rang the bell again. She still didn’t answer, so after a few more minutes I texted her – I was wondering if I had the address wrong. I waited for ages, but she didn’t text me back.’

‘Ooo,’ Breslin says, wincing. ‘That’s gotta sting.’

‘I thought maybe she hadn’t heard the text alert—’ Rory catches the mix of pity and amusement on Breslin’s face and ducks his head back down. ‘It could happen. She could have been cooking or something, and left her phone in another room – those text alerts can be awfully quiet—’

‘I’m always missing mine,’ I agree. ‘Pain in the hole. So did you try her again?’

‘I rang her. The house is only a little cottage, one storey, so I thought she’d definitely hear the ring, no matter where she was. But she didn’t answer.’ Rory glances up, catches Breslin’s dry grin and winces. ‘I tried one more time – this time I put my ear to the door, to see if I could hear the phone ringing inside – I was wondering if she was even there, or if . . . But I couldn’t hear anything.’

We’ll check that. I say, ‘What did you figure the story was?’

‘I wasn’t sure. I thought probably . . .’ Rory’s voice has almost vanished.