‘She was certainly dark-haired. I’m not sure about anything else.’ David was calmer now and focused on getting the facts right. ‘They spoke for a minute and then they walked down here to the beach. They seemed very easy with each other, looking out over the water. Then other people came out of the hall – I suppose a dance had finished and everyone wanted fresh air or a cigarette – and I left. I didn’t want to be seen and dragged in to the party.’

‘Did Charles leave at the same time?’ Willow was trying to work out a time-line for this. Even if Eleanor was Hillier’s companion on the beach, it didn’t turn him into a murderer. She was still alive to go back to Sletts with the others, to sit on the deck and drink more wine.

‘No, when I left they were still talking.’

‘What did you do when you got home?’

‘I went back to bed. As I say, the last thing I wanted was for Charles to know I’d been following him.’ David took off his wellingtons and wrung out his socks. His pale bare feet looked pink and fleshy in the firelight. A piece of pitch pine fell into the hottest part of the blaze and sparks floated upwards.

‘What time did he get back?’

The fire had taken Willow back to parties on the beach close to Balranald. Sometimes the whole commune had been there; middle-aged hippies sang the folk songs of their youth to acoustic guitars. Sometimes it was the wild boys of the island, steaming with drink because they were bored out of their skulls and that was the only excitement they could get.

David was taking a long time to reply and she prompted him. ‘Were you asleep when he got in?’

This time the answer was immediate. ‘Of course not! But I pretended to be. I was scared that he might be planning to run away, that stress about the business had finally pushed him over the edge. I kept looking at the clock and wondering what could have happened to him. I told myself he’d just have joined the party, had too much to drink and would be walking home. But I couldn’t quite believe that. Then I thought maybe he’d had an accident, and I imagined him lying at the bottom of a cliff somewhere. Eventually I heard his car. I almost wept with relief.’ He turned to her. ‘This must seem so foolish to you. An overreaction. But it was the first real relationship of my life. I was desperate not to lose him.’

‘What time did he get in?’

‘Ten to three. I looked at the bedside clock when he pulled into the courtyard.’