It won’t go away even now, though. We’re driving through the town, but in the front of my mind, tucked between the terraced streets, there’s the sound of the wind rushing through trees, the feel of a storm gathering.

The sky is gray, thick with cloud. Reluctant to fully commit to day, it could be twilight, slipping back into night without the sun ever making an appearance. Dad slows the car as we approach Dean House. He’s pale, his hands tight on the steering wheel. A uniformed policewoman stands by the gate. People in forensic suits are moving around inside the tangled garden.

“Wait! Stop. What’s going on? What’s happened? Is it Sean? Is it…”

“No, Tess, Sean is fine.” He pauses. “The property developers that bought the house came in yesterday to start work on demolition.”

“And? So? Why are the police there?”

Another pause. “They found bones.”

My scalp prickles. “What?”

“In the woods. Just outside the garden at Dean House, but within the boundaries. The new owners brought in the diggers and they dug up human bones.”

I’m instantly thrown back ten years. A body in the woods. Like Bella. Like Nicole and the other murdered girl. My vision goes dark and I think I’m going to pass out. There’s a roaring in my ears, a roaring that sounds like screaming, that sounds like rain and wind rushing through trees and mud sliding down a bank and…it sounds like death.

“Who?” I whisper. “Is it another girl? Is it another murder?”

Dad shakes his head. “I don’t know. The police have been there most of the night, that’s all I know.”

I turn to face forward again, afraid that Bella’s ghost will creep into my waking world if I keep looking. Bones—they’ve found bones. Who is it?

“Let’s get out of here,” I say to Dad. “Please.”

Dad reaches out to stop me from opening the door when he pulls up outside the house.

“Wait, Tess.”

I can see Max watching us from the window.

“What is it?”

“Jack’s here.”

I sink back into the car seat.

“I’m sorry—I know you two don’t get along, but Julia wanted to see him so badly. Sean spoke to him. Persuaded him to come back.”

Part of me wants to beg Dad to turn around and drive away again, but I’m not sixteen anymore.

Dad shakes his head. “He turned up last night. It was him that told us about the police being at Dean House. We’re all in shock, Jack and Sean most of all. It’s their house—or it was. We’re expecting the police to turn up any minute and I’m frightened about how the stress will affect Julia.”

“Does she know?”

“No. I’ve asked everyone to keep it quiet.”

“But won’t the police want to speak to her as well?”