“Not at all. I’ll come over with you,” Dan replied, catching the eye of a waitress and signalling for the bill. He then glanced at his watch. It was just before nine o’clock. He smiled across the table at Katie. “If we’re quick, you should just about make your twelve hours.”

Thank God hotels cater for unprepared travelers, Dan thought, as he made use of the disposable razor that he had found, neatly packaged, in the bathroom cabinet. He had already had a deep, luxurious bath and the empty sachets in the soap tray were testament to the fact that he had used every freebie that the hotel supplied. Throwing the razor into the waste bin, he toweled off what was left of the shaving soap on his face, and feeling clean and revitalized, he walked naked from the bathroom, flopped down on the bed, and rang the house in Clapham.

It was Jackie who answered. He had hoped that his decision to send the girls back to Alleyn’s might have helped solve some of their differences, but he only managed a stilted conversation with her before she handed him over to Millie. Talking to his elder daughter was the complete antithesis. Over the telephone, Millie sounded loving and buoyant in spirit, and he had to hold the receiver away from his ear at her reaction to the news that he had bought their train tickets for Christmas. The call lasted a further ten minutes, during which time Dan hardly uttered a word.

He began to watch a film on the television but it wasn’t long before the events of the day caught up with him as well. During a lengthy and deeply meaningful conversation between the two main actors, stuck in a wind-blown bivouac somewhere high up in the Himalayas, his head slumped on the pillow and he fell into a deep sleep.

It was the long, continuous beep of the empty screen that woke him. He fumbled for the remote, eventually finding it on the floor beside the bed, and turned off the television. He glanced at his watch before pulling the bedclothes over him, plumping up his pillow, and settling himself for the rest of the night. He angled his wristwatch to catch the glare of the streetlights coming in through the window. It was two o’clock in the morning. He had at least another six hours’ undisturbed sleep to enjoy.