When she returned to the living room the officers had taken off their jackets and looked more human, though the woman’s wild hair made Polly think of a mermaid from a kid’s story book. There was an awkward silence and she realized they’d been waiting for her before they started any meaningful conversation.

‘We’ve discovered that Eleanor had made contact with some local people to discuss her documentary,’ Willow Reeves said. They’d settled around the dining table. It was as if the discussion required something more formal than the easy chairs. ‘I’m wondering why she never mentioned that to you. As she was so excited by the project.’ When nobody responded she probed again. ‘Why the need for secrecy, do you think?’

‘She might have mentioned it to me,’ Ian said. ‘She talked about her work all the time, but I didn’t always listen. I have my own work. Sometimes she seemed not to realize . . .’

‘But she lied to you.’ Willow’s voice was gentle. Polly thought she might have made a good psychiatrist. ‘That afternoon when she claimed to be tired and the rest of you went for a walk, she met up with a woman who said that she’d seen Peerie Lizzie. The spirit of a drowned child.’

There was a moment of stunned silence. The detective looked at them each in turn. ‘She didn’t discuss this with anyone?’

They looked at each other and Polly could see that they were all trying to readjust to the idea of a different Eleanor. That the straightforward, up-front Eleanor they’d all known might have told lies.

‘Nell might have been embarrassed.’ Polly reached out to pour more coffee. ‘I mean, she knew we could never believe in stuff like that.’ Though now, she thought, she could sense irrational ideas drifting into her own brain like flotsam swirling around in the tide. Now she might be more sympathetic to Eleanor’s talk of ghosts.

‘And you thought that Eleanor might believe it?’ The detective’s voice was non-committal, but Polly could sense the scepticism.

‘Six months ago I’d have said it was impossible.’ Ian tapped his fingers impatiently on the table. ‘But recently? I don’t know what to think. She’d been behaving so strangely. I should have been more sympathetic about the baby. I should have given her my full attention. Insisted, at least, that she stay in hospital until they were ready to discharge her.’

‘How did she seem when you came back from the walk that afternoon?’ Again Willow addressed the question to the whole group.

Ian’s fingers still rattled on the table. Polly wanted to put her hand over his to stop the noise, to calm him.