‘It’s going to be OK, Mum,’ Claire said, sitting next to Shona at the kitchen table, even though she was feeling more and more that it wasn’t. They all sensed it – a teenage girl had gone to buy ice cream at the beach and she hadn’t come back – but no one was ready to say it.

Patrick drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, in a manner reminiscent of how he’d been in the early days of Lenni’s disappearance. Somehow his silence had given him an air of control, even though Claire knew he’d felt as helpless as the rest of them. She wondered if it was the same now or if his mind gave him some protection from reality. For once, she hoped he wasn’t completely aware.

‘I tell you, this house is cursed,’ Patrick muttered, as Maggie emerged from the snug.

‘They want to have a word, Claire,’ Maggie said quietly. ‘If Rain doesn’t turn up soon…’ She paused, stumbling over the possibility, ‘…then they’ll need to speak to everyone.’

Claire squeezed Maggie’s arm as she headed for the snug, but stopped when she heard Callum’s voice.

‘You don’t have to say anything without a solicitor, Claire,’ he said.

She swung around. ‘I just want to help find Rain. I don’t need a solicitor.’ She gave him a small smile, hoping he’d return it. He didn’t. After their drive around the area earlier, Callum hadn’t gone back out searching with the others on foot. She noticed how preoccupied he seemed, but also knew that work was preying on his mind. He didn’t have the kind of job that could be cast aside.

She closed the snug door and sat down in the armchair with the two PCs facing her. Perhaps her father was right. Perhaps Trevellin was cursed.

‘We won’t keep you long. If you can just tell us about this afternoon, when you last saw Rain, how she seemed.’

‘Of course.’ Claire forced herself not to make too much of the similarities that niggled away at her mind. It was too early to read anything into what would most likely turn out to be nothing more than a thoughtless teenager going off in a bad mood.

‘It was just a normal afternoon at the beach, really.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Maggie’s daughter, Rain, was hanging out with my son Marcus along with a couple of his mates from the village. She seemed a bit quiet but OK. They sat a little way away from us, like kids do.’ Claire paused, trying to ignore the hairs standing up on her arms as today’s happenings meshed with those emblazoned on her mind. ‘We were all there – eating, chatting and stuff. Maggie went off for a walk and, at one point, Nick went to find some mussels to cook.’ Claire walked herself through events as quickly as she could, knowing every second counted. ‘We strolled back up to the house about four o’clock, I think, but the kids stayed down a bit longer.’

‘Was Rain with your son and his friends when you left the beach?’

‘No, no I don’t think she was.’ Claire frowned, touching her hair. ‘I remember waving to Marcus on the way past. He stuck up his hand in return, but I’m not sure I recall seeing Rain.’

‘You’re not certain?’ PC Holt said.

‘I wouldn’t stake my life on it. You don’t think these things will be important at the time.’

‘Did all the adults walk back together?’ PC Wyndham jotted everything down.

‘Nick stayed down on the rocks a bit longer.’

‘Was there anyone in the house when you came back?’

‘I went back to my house first, the Old Stables.’ Claire made a gesture up towards where she lived. ‘It’s the first house you come to along the drive. But I realised I’d left my handbag and phone down here at Mum and Dad’s. I’m always coming and going between the two places.’ Claire nodded, confirming to herself that she’d got events right. ‘I thought I’d find Callum at home, working, but there was no sign of him. Our dog wasn’t around either, so I guessed he’d taken him for a walk. They came back while I was in the shower.’

‘Callum is your husband?’

‘Yes, sorry.’

‘The one who just said you didn’t have to say anything without a solicitor?’

‘Yes.’ Claire felt the flush in her cheeks.

‘How well do you know Rain?’ the female PC continued.

‘I’ve only met her a couple of times, when she was much younger. Maggie and I were best friends as kids. Maggie was a bit of a tearaway and I was the sensible one. We kind of balanced each other out.’ Claire managed a little smile.

‘Do you know Rain’s father?’

‘I’ve never met him, but I know he’s a politician.’ She wasn’t sure what Maggie had revealed but felt she should be honest with the police. ‘He’s married, but not to Maggie. His wife doesn’t know about Rain.’

Both detectives looked at each other.

‘No, it’s not like that. This has nothing to do with Rain’s father, I’m certain.’

‘Let’s flip that around, then. Do you think it has anything to do with Maggie? Is she struggling for money, perhaps?’

Claire recoiled at the question. She didn’t like what they were implying. ‘Maggie’s always just got by, but no, of course I don’t think she’s got anything to do with it. You’ve seen the state she’s in.’

‘Then what do you think has happened?’ The constable tapped the pen on her lip.

Claire’s mind smouldered, reigniting the past. ‘In all honesty,’ she said, glancing between the two officers, ‘I have absolutely no idea.’

---

Callum stooped to avoid the low beams as he joined his wife and the officers. He knew Claire had noticed his stern look.

‘We won’t keep you, Mr Rodway, but it would be helpful if you could tell us where and when you last saw Rain,’ PC Wyndham said, after introducing herself.

Callum scratched his cheek, frowning. ‘I dropped her off with Marcus and a couple of his mates in Newquay for a house party last night at about ten o’clock.’ The officer noted it all down while Callum watched, thinking how young she looked, how her cropped hair and flat shoes made her appear almost androgynous.

‘And how did they get home afterwards?’

‘I gave them forty quid for a taxi,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘Well, I gave it to Rain to take care of because last time Marcus spent it on booze and I ended up having to go out and fetch him at three in the morning.’

‘Do you know what time they came back?’

Callum’s swallow stuck halfway down his throat as he flicked a look at Claire. ‘I don’t know for certain. Marcus told me Rain left before them, going off with the taxi money. Thankfully, he was able to get cash out of the machine this time.’

‘But do you know how or when Rain came back, Mr Rodway?’

Callum stared at the officer, finally swallowing down the lump. ‘No.’

---

A while later, Claire showed the officers out. ‘Maggie’s worried sick,’ she said quietly at the back door. ‘If there are any developments, please let her know as soon as you can.’ She remembered how it had nearly killed them as they’d waited for news of Lenni. Minutes turned into hours which turned into days, months and finally years. Now they were counting in decades.

‘Mum,’ Claire said, when they’d gone. ‘Why don’t you and Dad go to bed? It’s nearly midnight.’ Her mother agreed, reluctantly admitting there was nothing more to be done tonight. She coaxed Patrick to do the same. After they’d gone upstairs, Claire went looking for Maggie. She wasn’t hard to locate – she just followed the smell of cigarette smoke. She was outside, standing around the corner of the nearest barn, staring up at the pitch-black sky, sucking in hard, blowing out harder still.

‘Did the police say anything else?’ Claire asked.

Maggie shook her head. ‘I’m worried, Claire,’ she said, hugging her arms around her body. ‘This isn’t what Rain does.’

‘Maybe she met someone at the club last night and arranged to meet them elsewhere. Perhaps that’s why she left the boys. Teenagers aren’t exactly known for their honesty.’

‘No.’ She inhaled again, hand shaking. ‘Rain would have told me. She tells me everything like that.’

Claire opened her mouth, then stopped herself. From what she’d seen, she wasn’t sure that was entirely true. For a start, it didn’t take an expert to notice that Rain had issues with her food. Had she spoken to her mother about that, she wondered? She was about to mention the possibility of kidnapping, the seed sown by the officer about Maggie needing money, but she held back. The police had also mentioned several other scenarios, which she daren’t tell Maggie about at this point. The riptides and currents were strong in the area, and the chance of her having had an accident on the rocks or cliffs and falling into the sea were high. With this in mind, they were scaling up the coastguard search at first light.

‘I’m worried with you,’ Claire said, pulling her close. She felt partly responsible – this week had been her idea, after all. They squeezed each other tightly before going back inside, surprised to see Shona and Patrick downstairs again.

‘Help me, will you, love,’ Shona said. ‘Dad wants to go out searching.’ She pulled a weary face. ‘For Lenni.’

Claire felt another surge of guilt. What had been intended as a pleasurable and healing week for him had turned into a nightmare. What kind of memories were being stirred up? Not the ones she’d intended, that was for sure. ‘Come on, Dad,’ she said, gathering what was left of her resolve. ‘Let’s get you upstairs. It’s time for bed.’

‘But I need to find her,’ he said, squinting as if part of him knew what he was saying wasn’t right.

‘We’ll talk about that in the morning,’ Claire said, encouraging him back up. Thankfully, he followed and she guided him upstairs with a hand settled beneath his elbow. He veered off to the wrong bedroom on the landing. ‘This way, Dad,’ she said.

Her parents’ room smelt faintly of her mother’s floral perfume, of fresh laundry and of love. Her parents had slept together in this room for as long as she could remember. It was a thick, intense kind of love that filled the house and stuck to all the Lucas kids as they’d grown up. Sometimes, Claire thought, we were loved too much.

‘Get into your pyjamas, Dad,’ she said, laying them out for him. Her father’s watery eyes stared up at her as he sat on the bed. He hated being taken care of, she knew that, but for now he seemed accepting, almost a little relieved. ‘Why not say a little prayer for Rain,’ Claire suggested, recalling him once saying the same thing to her as she cried herself to sleep a week after Lenni had gone. She fetched a glass of water from the bathroom and, when she returned, her father was in bed, his eyes closed and his thin, dry lips muttering words she could barely make out.