Chapter 19
The river was still and quiet.
The last of the day’s clouds scudded quickly across a dark evening sky. We moved together under the water. I felt his skin against mine and when we broke the surface, we wrapped around each other. I was faintly aware of the sounds of crickets and the occasional flutter of a bird, and then our own breathing drowned out everything, filling up the blackness. Later we lay on the riverbank looking up at bright stars. The last boat to the mainland would have just left.
‘It always leaves at seven-thirty, just as it did in Elise’s time,’ I told him.
I lay with my head on Matthew’s chest, going over the day in my head.
‘When did Jamilla begin pulling out her eyelashes and eyebrows?’ Matthew asked.
‘When Elise disappeared, according to Esther. I didn’t
