Heather doesn’t notice me staring in horror at the rings. Two, when there should be one. Maybe I’ve got it wrong. Maybe Flora hadn’t been wearing the ring when she disappeared. Except … I was there when Margot first reported Flora missing. Heather and I were standing at Margot’s side, Heather quietly sobbing. It had been late. Gone 11 p.m. Flora was never that late. I remember Margot giving a description to the police, telling them between hot, panicked breaths what her daughter had been wearing that day, including the gold signet ring. I remember because I’d loved the way it sounded like ‘cygnet’. My fourteen-year-old self had imagined lots of fluffy baby swans.

Why had Heather been crying? Could she have known then that Flora would never come home? As far as we were all aware at the time, she was just a few hours late. It was concerning, yes, given Flora’s history of always being punctual. But to cry? Had I thought it odd? I can’t remember. Because I had my own guilty secret: I knew Flora had gone off somewhere for the day with Dylan. I thought perhaps she’d decided to stay the night with him. But I wasn’t worried that she’d run away: the backpack she’d been wearing that morning was too small, not large enough to hold even one set of clothing, never mind more.

Heather had left me alone at her house earlier that evening, at around 7.30 p.m. I hadn’t remembered that until now. When she’d returned she had been wet and covered with mud. She said she’d slipped and fallen after getting her pony in from the field. She’d been wearing a skirt, not her usual riding gear. It had rained that night and I’d thought nothing of it. I’d waited for her in her room, happily doodling and listening to music until she came back. What time had she returned? It must have been nine-ish. Definitely before the curfew anyway, because I remember her looking at her watch and becoming agitated when it got to nine thirty and Flora wasn’t yet home, muttering something about Dylan.

I haven’t thought about that in years. Even after Flora went missing I didn’t think it was strange.

Until now.