I picked up my coffee and sipped. ‘He said he took her there to sober up – that she wanted some peace and quiet, so he left her there, and then a while later someone ran up to say she’d been found.’ That someone had been Jodi, of course, always first with bad news, but I shied away from revealing I could, in fact, recall many details of that night verbatim. ‘Then the police talked to all of us and it seemed like they’d made their minds up about Mike, because he’d been seen with her.’

Victoria traced absent-minded circles around her coffee cup. ‘Martha was an only child,’ she said. ‘I suppose that’s why her parents spoiled her a little. They were just broken when she died. It ruined them.’

It had ruined a lot of things, her death. And yet the six of us had managed to walk away unscathed. Or so I’d thought. ‘It was so awful.’

She frowned at me. ‘You saw Mike after he left her in the garden?’

After so many years, it came smoothly into my mouth. ‘Yes – he said she was fine then. It was just – bad luck. Wrong place wrong time.’

Her frown deepened. ‘Worse for Martha.’ I wondered if I hadn’t played it right after all, if I’d made things even worse.

‘Of course.’ I set my cup down, leaned forward earnestly. ‘Victoria, I think about Martha all the time. I know we weren’t that close, but she was so lovely, so pretty. But I’m just trying to help my husband. None of it was his fault.’ But was it, was it? Could I be so sure now? I held her gaze, steady.

‘What do you want from me?’

‘Oh, nothing. Just giving you a heads-up, in case the police start looking into it again. I didn’t think the college would be happy.’ It would be bad for them too, to have it all dredged up again, the death of a student within its walls, the suspicion that another student had strangled her, left her spread out on the cool green lawn with her white silk dress torn and rumpled, her skin even paler than the fabric. No one needed that image in their minds. Martha was dead, and that was a tragedy, but there was nothing we could do about it now.

Victoria nodded, and although I knew now we’d never be cordial again, I also knew I’d got what I came for. ‘Of course not. I’ll just tell them what I did back then. That she was drunk, and Mike took her to sit down.’