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watching you, I was looking for my dog.’
    â€˜Right,’ he winked. ‘Gotcha.’
    His staring eyes gave me the creeps. Pale electric-blue, like androids’ eyes, it was impossible to tell what lay behind them. I didn’t like the way he was standing, either, the way he was holding his body. Too close, but not too close. Close enough to make it awkward to look away. Close enough to insinuate, to say – look, look at this, what do you think?
    I took a step back and whistled for Deefer, scanning the beach. There was still nothing in sight. When I turned back, Jamie had stepped closer, his thumbs hooked inside his trunks. I could smell the oil on his skin, something sweet on his breath.
    â€˜Is Dom back from Liverpool yet?’ he asked.
    â€˜This afternoon, he came back this afternoon. Would you mind—’
    â€˜Is he coming out tonight?’
    â€˜I really don’t know. I think I’d—’
    â€˜What’s the matter, Cait? Look at you, you’re shivering.’ He smiled. ‘I’d give you something to put on, but as you can see, I don’t have a lot to offer.’ His eyes glanced downwards and he laughed. ‘It’s the cold, you know.’
    â€˜I have to go,’ I said, and turned to walk away. My heart was thumping and my legs felt weak. I was half-expecting a hand to grab my arm – but nothing happened.
    I don’t think I was really frightened at that point, justangry. Angry at myself for … I don’t know what for. For being there, I suppose. Angry that he’d made me angry.
    After about half a dozen steps I heard him crunching along behind me, calling out in a friendly voice, ‘Hold on, Caity, hold on. I want to ask you something.’
    I carried on walking.
    I thought I had the advantage. I had shoes on, Jamie didn’t. Walking barefoot on sharp shingle isn’t the easiest thing in the world. But within a few seconds he’d caught me up and was striding along beside me, hopping and grinning.
    â€˜Hey, where’s the fire? What’s the hurry?’
    â€˜I told you, I have to find my dog.’
    â€˜What’s his name?’
    â€˜Deefer.’
    â€˜Deefer dog?’ he laughed. ‘That’s very good. Very imaginative .’ He laughed again, then cupped his hands to his mouth and started calling out. ‘Dee-fer dawg! Dee-fer dawg! Dee-fer …’ – spinning round as he walked, like a lighthouse – ‘Dee-fer dawg! Dee-fer dawg! Dee-fer dawg! …’
    I carried on, heading towards the pillbox, trying to work out what to do. There were all sorts of unsavoury rumours about Jamie Tait, most of which, according to Dominic, he’d started himself. ‘Jamie’s all right,’ Dom told me once. ‘He just needs to let off a bit of steam now and then. All this madman stuff, it’s just island gossip. Jamie’s a teddy bear, really.’
    Well, I thought, teddy bear or not, the sooner I find Deefer and get home, the better.
    I’d reached the pillbox now. A squat, circular building, half-sunk into the ground, with thick concrete walls and a flat roof, it looks – and smells – like a dirty old publiclavatory. My nose wrinkled at the smell and I started to edge away, but I didn’t know which way to go. Should I cut across the saltmarshes and head for home, or should I get back to the beach and carry on looking for Deefer? Which way? Saltmarshes, beach, back to the Point …?
    Jamie had stopped his lunatic wailing and was skipping along the edges of the saltmarsh poking about in the reeds. ‘He’s not in here,’ he called out to me, stooping to pick up a stick from the strandline. ‘Hey, maybe he got a whiff of Rita Gray’s bitch. You know what dogs are like when they get that smell.’ He swung the stick at an empty Coke bottle then started towards me. ‘How’s Bill, by the way? She still got the hots for your