I accepted the large, sealed brown envelope. Tearing it open, I discovered a lengthy letter on several sheets of cream paper, handwritten in neat blue ink.

The opening line read: ‘My dear Stina, There is something that I feel I must share with you.’

Dumbfounded, I looked up at Mr Lewis. He smiled, looking a little uneasy.

‘I have no idea of the contents, only that it’s clearly not something for public view. Maybe you would prefer to read it in private.’

I nodded and thanked him, replacing the pages in the envelope. I drove home, my mind whirring. Elodie fell asleep once more in the car.

I waved to the bored policemen to let them know I had returned, then went straight upstairs to put Elodie into her cot. I let Jobie out into the garden and made myself a cup of tea. My senses electric with anticipation, I sat down at the table to read the letter.

CHAPTER 19

My dear Stina,

There is something that I feel I must share with you.

You may recall that I told you Frank and I hadn’t had any children. I’m afraid I wasn’t entirely honest with you. When we moved to Avoncote, I was pregnant. We weren’t married, and of course in those days, it was highly frowned upon. We talked about what we should do and came to the painful conclusion that we ought to give the baby up. I gave birth at home, to a baby boy, and the next day Frank drove back down to Dorset to leave him with my Auntie Ivy, my mum’s younger sister, who lived on a farm. She was still a relatively young woman, only in her late thirties, and she and her husband had never been able to have children. They were good, kind people. It broke my heart to part with him and I cried for days, but I thought it was for the best. We were very young and had little money coming in when we first moved, and thought that the baby would have a better, happier life in Dorset.

I was devastated, of course, and it took me a long time to get over parting with my son. But as time passed, the pain of losing him lessened and I gradually became used to the idea. We settled in to Rose Cottage and Frank was starting to make enough money for us to be comfortable, and well, things had started to look up.