DANIEL had been happy to discover that some friends from Brussels, a Swiss computer expert called Eric Schmidt and his French wife Dominique, were renting a nearby villa for the summer, Eric commuting back to Brussels when work demanded his presence there. Until now there had been little opportunity to meet up and so Daniel was pleased when the Schmidts invited them to celebrate le quatorze juillet, the biggest French national holiday, with them and their family from Belgium and France. Both Ana and Daniel spoke enough French to enjoy the thought of spending an afternoon and evening in their company. 

 

They arrived at the party at the same time as a Swiss couple who owned a villa nearby and who divided their time between Spain and their family home near Zurich. Albert Kramer and his wife Flora were, as Ana had pointed out many times to Daniel, like so many Swiss and Dutch people, polylingual. They seemed as happy to chat in English or Spanish as French or German, their first language. Ana felt a sense of relief at spending time away from the British people who had so taken over her life and so she chose to speak in French. The Kramers told them that as they spent a considerable amount of time in Spain; they had joined the U3a and were active in the Bridge club and two walking groups. 

 

Flora laughed as Albert told Ana about their interests. “We have lots in common with English people” she said, “we love going on long walks and we are totally besotted with our dogs.” Ten minutes passed with stories of their three rescued hunting dogs, galgos, clearly the loves of their lives. The dogs, they said, travelled with them in the car each time they moved between Switzerland and Spain, although it was a long journey and they generally broke the journey in France.

 

“French hotels are so good about allowing dogs to stay,” Flora said.

​

Daniel had made an excuse and moved away sometime before, dogs not being one of his interests, although he liked them and they him, as a rule.  When they were called to sit down to eat, Ana discovered they had placed her next to Albert Kramer while Daniel was at the other end of the table, next to their hostess. 

 

When they were all seated Ana asked Albert if he had been at the last U3a meeting but he and Flora had, it transpired, only returned from Switzerland the previous day and so they had, to their chagrin, missed the meeting, the last until September. Ana told him how she and her friend Mayte, the local police chief, had used the meeting to ask for information about the death of Sarah Harris. She was unprepared for his distress at this news. 

 

“Sarah dead, this cannot be, and drowned! No!, not Sarah, never, never, she was a superb swimmer.” Ana was horrified that she had broken the news of the death of his friend in such a brutal way, she had never imagined that Albert had known Sarah. His obvious distress drew Flora to his side and she put her arms around his shoulders, speaking to him softly “ shush, shush, mein shatchz,” When Ana explained that Sarah had died,  Flora, too, showed real sadness. “We used to walk with her often. She was such a good companion on a walk.” 

 

Flora went back to her seat and Ana explained to Albert that so far the police had found no evidence to explain what had happened. There were no sightings of Sarah on the morning she disappeared.

​

“But when was this? We left here on the morning of the twenty-fifth of June, very early, to avoid the heat.”
 

“That was the morning Sarah disappeared. She arranged to go for a swim, around seven, with a friend, Kevin Somerset, but she never turned up. No one saw her that morning, it is as if she disappeared into thin air.”

​

“I went out with the dogs around six, maybe six thirty” Albert was clearly trying to remember everything that had happened that morning; “I certainly didn’t see Sarah, I would have stopped to talk to her, arranged to meet up when we returned.”  

 

He seemed to be recreating the morning in his mind because he said “but I caught sight of someone. I completely forgot. As I walked back towards the cross at Portichol, where I left the car, I looked towards the road and I caught sight of a car and two dogs being loaded into the back. I couldn't identify the driver, it was too far but I thought the dogs might have been spaniels.”

 

At that moment Ana knew, no doubt in her mind, that Albert was describing Carole Hepworth. The background noise of the party faded and recent events slotted into place in her mind.  She was sure that the woman Albert saw was Carole, putting Punch and Judy into the car after meeting Sarah on the cliff top. She remembered, although she hadn't really forgotten, the talk between Carole and Sarah on the beach, the car that Ivan had heard early in that fateful morning when the dogs hadn’t barked, Carole’s return to the depressed state she fell into after Tom had left her. 

 

But she also knew it was not for her to interpret this information, to deduce what had happened. This was a job for the police, for Mayte, for Manuel Camps.  Ana realised that she must talk to Mayte as soon as they got home. 

 

But when they got home much later Daniel asked her not to phone straight away. He had said nothing about Albert's bombshell as they drove home but now he said he wanted to talk to her and would she postpone her phone call until they had talked.

 

Surprised, she agreed and went into the kitchen to make tea. They walked down the garden to their favourite place in the shade of an olive tree and sat at the small wrought iron table.
 

“Cariño, do you not want me to tell Mayte what Erik Schmidt said?  She will hear sooner or later, you know. Erik is back now, he will talk to others even if he doesn’t contact the police himself.”

Daniel appeared more disturbed than she had ever seen him; he got up from his chair, breathing fast, clenching and unclenching his fists. He turned to her, stood close to her chair 

 

“When did you turn into Nancy Drew, the girl detective? Do you want to be the goody two shoes who gives the police the vital clue that solves the mystery? What about Carole? Don’t you care what happens to her?” 
 

Then, most distressingly, he cried.
 

“Sarah could be spiteful, hateful even. Yes, terrible things happened in her life. Did that give her the right to mess up other people’s lives? What do you think about that, my little Spanish saint? What do you think you should do?

 

Ana was horrified. She had no idea what to do. What had she said or done to upset him so badly? Was he right, was she almost enjoying finding out what had happened, looking on it as a mystery in a book. She should have seen how much he cared about Carole, how close they were.  Dominic told her, tried to warn her even. Now she felt paralysed, unable to reach out to him. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him, but for once her skill with words deserted her. When words did come to her, they were Spanish ones. 

 

“Mi corazón, ¿qué es lo preocupas tanto? Ojalá supiera." She wished she knew what was troubling him so much.

 

When he did tell her she almost wished he had kept silent. For he confessed that he and Sarah had been lovers, for some months after Lynette's elopement with the tennis professional. Sara had been threatening Daniel that she would tell everyone about their affair. 

 

Then his passion seemed to leave him and he stopped speaking.  He sat down again. The spell broke and Ana could move again so she knelt at his feet and put her arms around his waist. “Oh, Daniel, cariño, my poor love, how hard it must have been to keep that to yourself all this time.” 

 

She stroked his face with her hand and told him that he had no need to keep such a secret from her, who was she, she asked him, to condemn others for things she had done herself? She would tell him about Max, she vowed but now was not the moment. This was not about her.

 

“And I didn’t know you then, anyway.” Then the thought came that perhaps it was Lynette he was protecting, that Lynette didn’t know about his infidelity. And what about Mark, his friend? Did he know?   She put these thoughts away. Standing up, she took his hand and he too stood up and embraced her.

 

“What a terrible time this has been, mi marido. I am only just realising how much it has hurt us, and we are only on the edge of the tragedy. So, I will not phone Mayte tonight, we will take some music and a bottle of wine to the terrace and sit, together, you and I. I will choose the first music, w will have the Ravel G major piano concerto, and you may choose the next music, and the wine.”

 

The music and the beauty of the evening restored calm to their home and when they went to bed Ana watched Daniel fall asleep almost immediately. She was not able to achieve unconsciousness so easily, different scenarios passed across her mind: Carole meeting Sarah to beg her to leave Ivan alone; Carole asking Sarah to protect Daniel’s reputation, and his friendship with Mark; Carole and Sarah wrestling on the cliff top; Sarah falling….

 

Just before dawn sleep mercifully came to her.