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Surely she wouldn’t still be at the sleepover if she’d arranged all of this? I made out Alix in the living room, talking to a woman called Sarah, and reluctantly made my way over to her. ‘Sorry to butt in,’ I said.
    ‘Yes?’She still talked to me in that voice of brittle, exquisite politeness. Perhaps she always would now.
    ‘I don’t know where Charlie is. Was she still at your house when you left?’
    She frowned. ‘I don’t think so – but that’s what these teenage sleepovers are like. You don’t know who’s there and you don’t know when they depart, unless you happen to bump into them in the bathroom. You just hope they’re not drinking vodka and that they clear up the mess when it’s all over.’
    ‘So you didn’t see her leave?’
    ‘I’m afraid not. Have you lost her?’ She made Charlie sound like a bunch of keys.
    ‘Is Tam still at your house?’
    Tam was Alix and Joel’s daughter: petite, blonde, fragile, demure, beloved of all teachers, and Charlie’s most persistent persecutor in and out of school.
    ‘I’m not sure.’ Alix gave her chilly smile again. ‘But you know how it is with teenagers, they – ’
    ‘Can you give me her mobile number, please? Charlie’s not answering hers. I’m getting a bit anxious. We’re meant to be leaving for a holiday in a couple of hours.’
    I punched in the number as she said it and listened to the ringing sound. The voicemail picked it up and I left a message, asking Tam to ring me back at once and leaving both my numbers.
    Behind me, I heard Karen say, ‘Well, there’s something to be said for toy-boys.’
    Renata came down the stairs. She had taken off her jacket and scarf, brushed her hair and put on some lipstick that was too bright for her. She looked a bit like a ghost, but she was making an effort. ‘Tell me who everyone is, then,’ she said. ‘You seem to have made a lot of friends here already.’
    ‘I don’t know who half of them are. Charlie invited them as a surprise. Anyway,’ I looked round the room, ‘that’s Joanna – or Josephine. She’s a solicitor. She lives in a lovely house further to the north of the island. That’s Carrie. She taught Jackson last year and he liked her. That’s Karen.’
    ‘The woman who’s a bit the worse for wear?’
    ‘Yes. I think she’d already had quite a bit by the time she arrived. She’s the medical secretary, and she’s married to a teacher at Charlie’s school, Rick, but I can’t see him at the moment. No – there. Tall, rather good-looking, curly dark hair. Her son, Eamonn, is the one who’s walked straight out of a scary movie. I think he’s all right, though. That’s Bill – you might bump into him because he works at a boatyard across the road. I’ll introduce you to him in a bit if you want. And that girl who’s smoking and thinks I can’t see is Ashleigh, Charlie’s best friend.’
    ‘Who’s that? He was trying to catch your eye. He looks nice.’
    ‘That’s Joel. He’s a tree-surgeon – that’s why he’s wearing those things.’
    I half turned away to hide a blush. My description of Joel had been incomplete. When I first met him, he had been separated from Alix for much of the year, by her choice and not his, and not long ago I had been left by Rory. We knew each other because of our daughters. He was the opposite of Rory in almost every way: capable, steady, practical. We’d drunk wine together, told each other stories of our life and relationships, practised our versions of what had happened to us, swapped confidences, become maudlin, sad and weepy together. We had tried to comfort each other. And we’d slept together a few times, although it had never been about desire. For me it had felt too much like two drowning swimmers clutching at each other, dragging each other down. I suppose I had wanted to know that I was still capable of attracting a man, but very quickly I felt guilty for allowing Joel to fall in love with me and to need me more than