Julius kept low as he scrambled through after the second car. He ran the first hundred metres, then squatted in a roadside ditch as a car filled with night staff clattered towards him. He’d tried to remember the route but checked Google Maps to be sure.

He went right where the unit’s driveway forked. Then it was a half-mile jog along a country road, and three miles’ brisk walk on an easily lost track to Dormansland Hall.

Once he was off-road, Julius dialled Matt. But the signal was hopeless. By the time Julius found a signal, the school and surrounding boarding houses pierced darkness, while his Nikes carried thick mud.

Julius waited by the padlocked gate at the rear of The Hall’s playing fields, known as the hiking gate. It was hard listening to youthful shouts coming from a place where he’d felt looked after and happy. The wait was long enough to make him wonder if something had gone wrong, but Matt arrived with a squelch of hiking boots and a flash of torchlight.

‘Old Khan was bawling out second-formers in the lobby,’ Matt explained. ‘I had to get a boost out the window of the toilets behind our common room.’

There was no easy way through the padlocked gate. Matt thought about lobbing the tatty Tesco bag over the two-metre barrier, before realising there was a big gap at the bottom.

‘There’s fifty quid and some change in a pencil case,’ Matt said. ‘Two bottles of water, a torch and two Topic bars in case you get hungry. I wasn’t sure if you’d checked the trains from Dormans. I doubt you’ll make the ten sixteen, but there’s another at ten forty-six.’

‘I hadn’t,’ Julius admitted, wondering what other obvious things he’d not thought of as he looked inside the bag. ‘This all looks great. Here’s a little something to pay you back.’

Julius had muddy hands, so he wiped them on his jeans before taking out a newspaper with Georgia on the front page.

Matt looked made up as he read black marker pen:

To Matt,

Any friend of Julius’s is a friend of mine!

Georgia XXX

‘Awesome sauce,’ Matt said. ‘I can’t believe you met her, let alone made friends. Plus, it’ll annoy my new roommate, Theo. He’s pro-government and he never stops humming. It’s enough to make me miss finding your pit hairs all over my roll-on …’

‘One time, by accident,’ Julius protested lightly, before turning serious. ‘You always joke that your dad’s dodgy. But do you think I might be able to ask him for help?’

Matt peered through the fence, confused. ‘You’re in the market for financial management? Didn’t I just sub you fifty quid because you’re broke?’

‘I have some questions about my mum’s finances. I don’t understand what’s going on with her money and the family businesses …’