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tedious experience, how the Social Services worked.
      Procedure. Questions had to be open, devoid of angle. ‘Subjects must have the opportunity to volunteer information without undue prompt or influence.’
      Elena looked out over the gardens and pool. With the winter light fast dying and a chill wind, it looked inhospitable. She recalled two photos Lorena had sent with a short note five months back: one of her in the pool with an oversized beach ball in bright sunshine, the other of her blowing out the candles at her April birthday party with a few friends – probably taken in the breakfast or dining room. Happy days with her new family. Few signs now of a child’s joyful activity, thought Elena; the atmosphere in the house was flat and sterile. Pretty much like Nadine’s interview technique.
    The softly-softly approach might work with some, but Elena doubted it would with Cameron Ryall. She remembered from the first adoption report that he’d been a practising barrister for three years before going into business. With now almost thirty years of hard-edged trading under his belt, he could run rings round the Nadine’s of this world.
      But then Nadine had told her that probably little would be revealed until they spoke to Lorena directly, and then if anything looked suspicious she would hit the Ryalls with bigger guns at a second interview. Perhaps her attachment to Lorena was making her too anxious for a quick solution, which was no doubt why Nadine had reminded her so pointedly to stay in the background with the Ryalls, ‘However angry and indignant you might feel. And after the initial introductions with Lorena and putting her at ease, leave everything to me.’
      Her husband Gordon, too, had tried to calm her crusading spirit when she’d told him about the meeting with the Ryalls. ‘It may all come to nothing, you don’t know yet. And even if something is happening, it’s not your problem anymore, it’s the Social Service’s. You did your bit by caring for those children until they found homes. You can’t be expected to stay responsible for them all forever.’
      But that was the problem, she did still feel responsible for them all. And in that moment, she felt a strong pang of guilt that in twelve years of marriage, she’d never told Gordon why. Perhaps he was right, it would all come to nothing, and she would never have to tell him. It would stay her secret, as it had done already for half her life.

     
    ‘No, no. There’s no problems.’
      ‘Are you sure?’ Nadine let out a slow breath. ‘This is quite important. It’s why we’re here.’
      A moment’s hesitation from Lorena, but it was quickly brushed aside. ‘No, really. Everything’s fine. I was worrying for nothing.’
      They were in the music and playroom they’d passed earlier. Lorena had been ushered in from her room by the maid, then they’d been left alone, the door closed.
      There had been a tense moment towards the end of interviewing the Ryalls when Nadine had asked a similar question: ‘Moving closer to home, is there anything here troubling Lorena that you can think of?’ Elena had turned from the window and moved a few paces back towards the Ryalls, focusing intensely and staring almost straight through them – not sure whether she was still looking for tell-tale signs or was hoping to unnerve them. Cameron Ryall had answered the same as Lorena, though without any hesitation.
      Lorena appeared to have grown almost two inches since Elena had last seen her, was now close to five foot. Her hair was long and straight and somewhere between light-brown and corn, with just a hint of red in certain lights. Her eyes were a large and expressive blue-grey with a sprinkling of pale green flecks. In a few years, she could no doubt pass for a stunning pre-pubescent cat-walk model, and perhaps that had partly contributed: because she was so pretty, it was easy to believe the worst about Cameron Ryall. Elena tried to