“Really?” said Lissa, approaching the bottom of the vat glass. The house didn’t smell at all. Nice, if anything—that little scent of almond shampoo, the same type she’d started using.

“Yup,” said Kim-Ange. “Lucky escape if you ask me. Another?”

Chapter 74

“Kim-Ange?!”

But nobody was answering the door. Cormac slumped in the doorframe, sweating. He had run all the way there, and even though it was later, the heat was still dense and humid, unpleasant, as if all the buildings were holding it in, storing it all day like a battery, then giving it back into the evening. Cars had honked and people had yelled as he tore past, his lungs ragged with what felt absurdly like freedom. She had to be at the nurses’ home, she had to be. Where else would she go but to see her best friend?

There were a million places she could go, of course, but he couldn’t think of that right now, only that she’d be there; he had charged through Borough Market, but the stalls were closed and the bars full of couples and groups, and as if—as if—she’d have waited all day! It wasn’t even possibly or remotely likely. Nobody noticed him as he ran past, tension on his face, except for one waiter, clocking on to his second shift, who looked at him and wondered . . . just wondered. And hoped it would be okay for the sweet girl with the sad face.

AND HERE HE was. Stav the doorman had smiled happily at him—it had taken a quarter of the year, but Cormac had worn him down eventually with a very expensive pain au raisin habit—as he’d hopped up, sweaty and disheveled, and banged on Kim-Ange’s door, even thinking he really ought to take a shower but unable to wait, completely unable to wait even one second more to see her.

Yazzie walked past.

“Hey!” said Cormac.

She sniffed loudly at him, which he found slightly puzzling, as he had absolutely no idea she was annoyed with him.

“Have you seen Kim-Ange?”

“She’s got a boyfriend,” said Yazzie pointedly.

Cormac blinked. “Aye, I know that . . . I just wondered if you’d seen her.”

“You look filthy and awful,” pointed out Yazzie.

“Thanks,” said Cormac.

“Just call her,” said Yazzie.

“Could you? I’m almost out of charge,” said Cormac. “Please? Please! Tell her if she’s with Lissa I can explain . . . please? Tell her I’ll call.”

“Sure,” said Yazzie, walking off and pretending to put her phone to her ear.

He glanced at his watch. Shit! It was after eight o’clock already. Lissa’s train left at nine. Euston station was half an hour away.

Chapter 75

“Did you call your mum?” said Kim-Ange, pouring Lissa into a taxi. “Don’t call her now, I mean. Just . . . call her.”