She stands up, too, but she only reaches his shoulder. ‘Please don’t lie to me, Adam,’ she says calmly. ‘You were seen with him in the pub. And I know you wrote a threatening note to him after he died. This was one bullet you couldn’t dodge. Ring any bells?’

He runs his hand over his chin and she notices a throbbing in his jaw. ‘Fucking hell. Don’t you trust me?’

She flinches. Adam never normally swears in front of her. ‘I want to know what you’re hiding. I’m Heather’s mother. I’m on your side. Heather’s side. Adam … Please. What were you both involved in? You can tell me anything.’

He laughs, but there is an edge of mania to it. ‘You really think that I … that Heather … would be involved in anything dodgy?’ He slumps back on the sofa. Suddenly the fight has gone out of him. His chin quivers and she sees, with a jolt, that he’s on the verge of tears. ‘I was just trying to do something good.’ He gulps. ‘The pain she was in. It was always there, since the day I met her. The guilt she felt at Flora’s death. She suffered with bouts of depression long before she had Ethan. But she didn’t want to worry you. You’d been through enough, don’t you see?’

Margot did. Her daughter, her lovely, gentle, kind Heather, hid her suffering so as not to upset her. The thought of it broke Margot’s heart. ‘Go on,’ she says, in a small voice.

‘At the beginning of the year Deirdre Wilson booked two nights in one of the caravans. She said she was in the process of buying a house in the area so wanted to be near as she had a few things to sort out. She brought her dog with her. It was extremely cute. Like a bear. Heather got talking to Deirdre.’ He smiles at the memory. ‘You know what Heather’s like. She’s always so good at small-talk. She’s genuinely interested in people. Anyway, Heather was really taken with the dog, I can’t remember its name, and Deirdre told Heather she used to breed them, and gave Heather her contact details as her son, Clive, still did. I remembered Heather telling me about it. We felt it would be good for Ethan – for all of us – to have a puppy.’

‘So you spoke to Deirdre?’

‘Yes. Only on the phone to get her son’s details. By this time she’d moved into her cottage in Tilby.’

‘So then you contacted Clive?’