At the door, Alice turned to me. Her face was unreadable. “I have that bag too,” she said, and she reached out and gently touched the strap.

It was a while since I had been in the countryside. The wind blew the rain right into my face. I heard a car driving up behind me and slowing down. A small hole opened in my chest, but the moment of horror was quickly resolved when I turned to see the grinning cabby raise an acknowledging hand.

His wife was on the phone and he had her on speaker while we navigated the narrow lanes.

“I’ve got a customer with me, Davina. Say hello!”

An Indian takeaway was agreed upon. There was a debate over a chicken balti or a rogan josh.

“Two naans.”

“One naan, Alan. We’ll share it.”

“But I never quite get half, do I, my darling?”

“That’s the price of love, babe.”

I wondered if Alan had ever had an affair with Davina’s best friend.

We ground to a halt. Ahead of us, the lane was flooded. We sat in the car looking at the water. Alan wanted my opinion if we should drive through it.

“Depends how deep it is,” I said.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking.”

“Is there a way round?”

“Yes, but it takes ages. Not that I’d charge you, mind.”

I pulled off my shoes and got out. The road was cold and wet. The puddle was twelve feet across, but at its deepest it was only up to my calves. I gave the cabby the thumbs-up and went and got back in.

From the glove box, he pulled out a tea towel and handed it to me in the back seat.

“There was me thinking you were a town mouse.”

And I wanted to do nothing more than to go home with them, with this nice man to his cheerful wife, to watch telly and eat a curry.

On the train, Hutchinson called. Floods were causing havoc everywhere. We had been late leaving and another service had been canceled, so the carriages were packed. Darkness was falling and the windows were occluded with steam. It was hard to tell how fast we were going. It could have been walking pace or a hundred miles an hour.

I struggled down the aisle and into an unoccupied space just in front of a toilet.

“What did you find out?”

“Well, his phone hasn’t been turned on for two weeks. But if he hasn’t been seen in nearly four that’s good news, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so.”

“But it was switched off before that too. Like he was switching it off for a few days and then turning it on for a few minutes at a time. He did that three times, before it went off completely.”

“Can you tell where he was?”