A lie. Since losing out on the last London job, she’d lost the confidence to apply for another job there. But now she’d said it, suddenly the idea didn’t seem like such a bad one. London was where Nikki was. If Emer wanted any chance of winning Nikki back, it’s where she should be too. Plus, if she moved to London she might be able have a second shot at finding Kitty.

‘London?’ Ursula’s eyes latched on to Emer, staring at her as if she was trying to see inside Emer’s soul. ‘You can’t go chasing off to London just because that’s where your ex-girlfriend has gone. Unless Nikki’s not the reason? Oh, I see.’

‘See what?’ Emer said.

‘It’s this nonsense about your sister, isn’t it?’

‘It’s not nonsense,’ Emer said. Then, seeing the warning look on Robert’s face, she changed the subject. She’d promised him earlier she would avoid talking about this in front of Ursula.

After dinner, which seemed to drag on interminably, Emer escaped to her bedroom. The idea of moving to London for a bit had taken hold. It was great that Robert had hired a private detective, but if Emer was in London then she’d be able to try and contact the woman herself.

She opened her laptop and did an internet search for the Town of Ramsgate pub in Wapping. She’d done this lots of times already and, as she scrolled through the results now, there was no new information here. She’d already looked through the different images of the pub, scanning the faces of the people in the bar, searching for Kitty’s face. But no matter how many times she looked, she couldn’t see her sister.

The pub’s phone number was listed on the website. Several times, she’d called the number. She’d always hung up as soon as someone answered it. Her phone was on the table beside her laptop. She picked it up now and dialled the number again.

‘Hello?’ A man’s voice. The same person who’d answered every other time she’d called.

‘Hello?’ He said again, sounding impatient. ‘Who’s calling?’

In the background, she could hear the different noises of the pub – people laughing and talking, the clink of glasses.

‘Can I speak to Kitty, please?’

‘Sorry, love. No one here called Kitty. You sure you’ve got the right number?’

‘I think so,’ she said. ‘Kitty. Tall with blond hair?’

A pause before he answered.

‘Afraid not,’ he said. ‘Sorry.’

He hung up before she could say anything else. Had he been telling the truth? She thought so, but she really had no idea. The conversation had shifted something inside her, spurring her determination to take action.