But she still looked at me as if she knew.

I waved to Suze in a friendly, thankful fashion.

She nodded coolly, the stuck-up cow.

I licked my lips and stared at the phone in my hand. I was holding it so tightly my knuckles were white.

‘Tara?’

I looked at Big Dave.

‘Is there something wrong?’

I bit my lower lip. Grief choked in my throat.

But as I gripped my phone, I realised that I knew nothing about Big Dave or Mad Dave, not any more.

My memories of them were when we were all in our mid-teens, when my wild years were just getting started and they were young apprentices working for my father, embarrassed and intimidated when they were taken to the big house. I was no longer that teenage girl and the two Daves were no longer blushing boys.

‘Tara?’

I looked up and somehow I was not surprised to see that Big Dave was staring at me as if his feelings for me had never died.

‘Yes, David?’

‘Do you need some help with anything?’

I took another breath.

‘There might be one small thing,’ I said.

THIRTEEN

Christian

On Saturday Tara announced she was taking Marlon up to visit her parents in Bushey and so it was just me and Buddy in Camden, our presence at the big white house surplus to requirements. The dog and I were arriving home from our walk when a car turned into our street. I tensed, tightening my grip on Buddy’s lead, expecting the green bug to come screaming towards us. But the car that appeared was a big gas-guzzling black Mercedes, ambling down the road, very slowly, as if looking for an address.

It came to a halt beside us.

A man got out of the driver’s seat. He was maybe ten years older than me, a rich-looking man in a blue suit with a wide white smile – warm, friendly, reassuring.

A nice man.

A teenage girl emerged from the passenger seat and as the man approached me she turned her head to look at me, frowning before she looked away, dipping her long face to the phone that she gripped in her fist.

But the man was charming enough for both of them.

So it was really happening, I thought.

Tara had put the house on the market, strangely passionate about our family starting again somewhere else, maybe even moving out of the city, and she had told me the estate agent had already arranged for some potential buyers to come round. I was surprised that Tara hadn’t mentioned this viewing but then she had had a lot on her mind recently.

The man held out his hand and I shook it.

A good handshake.

You could trust this man, I thought.

‘James Caine,’ he said.

TARA

I dropped Marlon off at my parents’ house and told them that something had come up at work and I needed to drive back into town immediately. The pair of them were so crazy about Marlon, the smiles never wavered. They were probably delighted to have their grandson all to themselves. So I kissed my beautiful boy goodbye, got back on the motorway and put my foot down, anxious to keep my appointment with the doctor.