‘I’m fifteen and a half. And of course I know about tides. I asked – I asked most particularly.’

‘Who did you ask?’

‘It was someone in the hotel. There were two old ladies, and they said it wouldn’t be high tide until about eleven, so of course I thought it would be perfectly safe to walk along the beach.’

‘That depends upon how much beach there is. And the tide is high at a quarter to nine!’

She turned and stared at him. Just a shape in the dusk – a shape and a voice. But she wasn’t thinking about that – it was what he had just said about the tide. If it was high at a quarter to nine… She cut in, quick and breathless,

‘Then, why did she say it wasn’t high until eleven?’

His shoulder jerked.

‘How do I know?’

‘She did say high tide at eleven.’

‘I suppose the simple answer is that she didn’t know any more than you did.’

‘Then why did she say she did?’

He shrugged again.

‘People are like that. If you ask them the way, they will practically never say they don’t know. They just waffle on, misdirecting you. I thought you said there were two of them. Why do you say “she”?’

‘Well, really only one of them spoke. The other mostly stood there and nodded. I’d been writing my name in the book. There’s a little window between the office and the hall, and they came up on either side and looked over my shoulder. One of them said, “Is your name Candida Sayle?” and I said yes, it was. I thought it was rude of them to look over my shoulder, and I didn’t want to go on talking, so I began to walk away. But they followed me, and the one who had spoken said, “That is a very unusual name.” They were quite old, but they were dressed exactly alike. Honestly, they were odd! I wanted to get away from them, so I said I was going for a walk. And that was when she said it would be nice along the beach and the tide wasn’t high until eleven.’