It had taken Kate a long time to understand why John chose to marry her. There were plenty of other women in his life who were much more attractive and interesting. He could have had his pick. Kate had forgettable looks. She was quiet, like a duck slipping silently through a pond. Yet John had courted her, aggressively, like a man who knew exactly what he wanted.

Over the years of their marriage, Kate had peeled back the layers of her husband and caught a glimpse into his past, and she came to understand why he had chosen her. John had one other serious relationship before Kate. Her name was Audrey Finn – a movie star name. She was stunningly beautiful and a gifted artist. More than once, Kate had stalked her on Facebook after one or two glasses of white. Audrey Finn knew sign language because her sister was deaf. Her father was some sort of diplomat, and she had spent parts of her childhood in Japan and the United States. What John had told her implied that he simply couldn’t hold Audrey’s interest.

Enter: Kate. Two years out of university, working at a low-level accounting firm in the northern suburbs. She had never had a serious boyfriend and had never travelled. She’d be crazy to abandon someone like John, and he knew it.

‘Kate, this should go without saying, but whatever happens, whatever we find out on that island, you and Mia will always be supported.’

‘Whatever happens?’

‘I’ve been trying to figure out why John would go to Belport, why he’d lie to you about leaving his job, why he’d lie to us. I’ve come up with a couple of theories, and, well … none of them are good.’

Kate wet her lips and stepped harder on the accelerator. The speedometer crept up towards the speed limit, then over it.

‘All I’m saying is, we should prepare ourselves,’ Fisher said. ‘Mentally. We might be about to learn some things about John that we’d be better off not knowing.’

‘Like what?’

Fisher looked out the window. ‘We all have things that ought to stay buried, things a person should keep to themselves. Things that, if they were ever dragged into the light, would change the way people saw us. I suppose my point is, how well can you really ever know anyone?’

Kate wondered what dark things Fisher had buried.

‘You think he’s been having an affair, don’t you?’ She kept her eyes fixed on the road but felt his gaze on her. ‘He could have met someone there in the summer. A local woman. They could have stayed in touch. It’s easy enough nowadays.’

‘John wouldn’t do that,’ Fisher said, but his words were like a backdrop in a Hollywood studio, held together by balsawood and coated in cheap paint. ‘You’re speeding, Kate.’