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The next afternoon, after the careful, no-nuisance, legally sanctioned bonfire, the three of them sat in garden chairs drinking very strong coffee and listening to the digging and banging going on next door.

“I don’t believe that their contractors work on Sunday,” said Opal.

“I don’t believe that they called the police on you ,” said Lilah.

“There was someone in that tree house,” said Marina. “I wish I knew why. And what they know.”

“You should get some security cameras.”

“I will. Anyway, there’s no way anyone could have seen what was happening in the basement.”

“Do you think it was S?” asked Lilah. “The man who Zachary paid to kill my father?”

“Did he sound like the kind of man who enjoys Oreos?”

“Not especially. But he was expecting to meet Zachary at about the time that we were packaging pieces of him up in bin liners. He’s got to be furious and looking for him. He could have traced him here.”

“I think you should go to the police,” said Marina, and held her hand up to Opal. “Hear me out. It’s natural that you’d report your fiancé missing anyway, especially given what happened to your dad. And I think you should tell them that you overheard him talking with someone he called S, promising to give him money.”

“That makes things complicated,” said Opal.

“But it makes things safer for Lilah. This man should not be out there. We can’t find him. But maybe the police can. They can investigate your bank accounts, maybe trace the money that he stole and where it went? I don’t know how it works. But it seems like the only chance of bringing him to justice. And Lilah deserves that.”

Opal frowned, but she nodded. “Okay. In that case, we need to hope that no one saw us together.”

“No children’s health book charity?”

“That was never going to work.”

“We’ve been lucky so far,” said Lilah. “Relatively.”

They sank into silence. They were all very tired. It felt weird not to have an immediate crisis to deal with. Weird and...unfinished.

Lilah finally said what was on all their minds. “What do we do next? After I go to the police?”

“Back to work tomorrow for me.” Opal stretched. “There’s no rest for the wicked, or for content creators.”

“I miss my kids.”

“I want to go back to work too,” said Lilah. “And I need to move out of that expensive hotel. But that’s not what I meant. I meant: what do the three of us do next? Do you want to make plans?”

“We don’t have any more reason to be together,” said Opal.

“We...could keep in touch,” said Marina.

“It’s safer not to,” said Opal. “The fewer links between us, the better. Especially if Lilah’s going to the police and if—well, when—Zander’s found and identified. It’s the Google principle.”

“Oh,” said Lilah.

“There’s luck, and then there’s pushing our luck. We should delete our chat and each other’s numbers, never meet up again.”

“But what if we have to get in touch?”

“Why should we have to? If we get away with it?”

“What about the person who was watching from the tree house?” asked Marina.

“Occam’s razor. Odds are that was just what the police said it was: someone looking to steal from the neighbors.”

“I suppose...” Lilah sighed. “I suppose I hoped we could stay friends.”

Opal stood up and yawned. “We’ve committed a crime. We want to stay out of jail. Friends are a liability.”

“Anyway,” said Marina, “we all need to get on with our lives. Move forwards. This was traumatic to say the least. We can’t get over it if we keep on reminding each other of it.”

“Right.” Lilah drew a deep breath and fortified herself. “We need to put it in the past.”

They took out their phones and, on the count of three, deleted each other.

“Well,” said Lilah.

“That’s that,” agreed Opal. “It’s been interesting knowing you all. Remember ladies: calcium and weight-bearing exercise.” She winked, and left.

Lilah worried her lip. “I’ll...well, I suppose I’ll get going too.”

“Do you want to take some ice cream with you? Or do you want some before you go? There’s a lot left.”

“No, no, that’s okay. Your kids will enjoy it.” She got up.

“You don’t need to leave right this minute,” tried Marina.

“No. You were right. I’ve had some big changes in the past few months. I need to grieve for my father and work out what my life is like without him. And I need to understand how I feel about Zachary’s betrayal, and see our whole relationship through the view of what he was really doing. All of this, what we’ve gone through, and getting to know each other, it has got in the way of processing those emotions. So I have to concentrate on that now. And also, I’ve had a lot of money stolen and I have to deal with that.” She nodded decisively and straightened her shoulders. “The sooner the better.”

“The sooner the better,” echoed Marina.

Lilah held out her hand. Marina shook it.

And then she was gone, and Marina was all alone.