"Exactly."

"You looked dreadful. Like you'd seen a ghost."

"Honey, I felt like hell.” Tommy's blue eyes, so unhappy, were trained on mine.

“Did you tell him?"

"No. Still haven't. But, as I say, he's no fool and I think he can tell that my mood's changed."

"We all can."

“Yeah, quite. Mr Transparent. Belinda can tell, too.”

“You think she knows?”

“I do. In fact, I think he may have confided in her. Confessed. He'd never go to Roger. And she may have encouraged him. Or even —" he hesitated — “persuaded him to do the cover-up. Maybe they both panicked.” He shrugged. “Look, I'm just surmising. I don't know."

"It's a good surmise, though." I thought about it. About how Hugo would go to her. Always.

“She keeps taking me aside and reminding me what a very old friend I am of Hugo's, and how she knows I'll always be there for him. Her fingers pressed into my arm, pussycat smile in place."

I licked my lips, which were dry. “What will you do?” I breathed.

“Well, I won't cover it up, if that's what you mean. And which I have a feeling is what Belinda wants me to do, i.e., make a better job of it than Hugo, which frankly, I could. But I obviously won't report him, either. I'll ask him to do that. Report himself. I'll have that conversation. Tell him he has to fess up to the authorities.”

“Before someone else goes to the Environment Agency,” said Shona grimly.

I looked at her. “You mean . . .”

“Fleming.”

“But–”

"He is so on it," she interrupted, leaning across the table urgently towards me. "He doesn't know exactly the scale of the underground pipe corrosion or the cover-up, but he can tell there's something dodgy going on. Repairs are very detailed but not that expensive. Why? I know he's trying to gain access to Bellingdon Company records, some of which are public, some clearly not. He wants to get to the bottom of it."

“And destroy the Bellingdons.”

“Well, indirectly, maybe. But it's all in the name of the environment. And whilst what Fleming is doing seems underhand to you, to most people it would seem totally justifiable.”

It occurred to me to wonder if he'd embarked on a relationship with me to glean information, but I dismissed the thought as soon as it arrived. No. Absolutely not. It nevertheless struck me as unforgivable that he hadn't mentioned any of this when we met earlier. Just the beach clear-up. Lying by omission. My heart began to beat fast. "What will happen to him? To Hugo? To the company?"

"If he puts his hands up?" asked Tommy.

"Yes."

"Up to the sentencing council at the Environmental Audit Committee."

“Sentencing council? You mean—"