‘Crazy,’ Emer said. ‘But I’m sure I can squeeze in a trip to the seaside. God knows, I’ll need the break soon enough.’

‘I’ve got another cousin, on my mum’s side of the family – Louise. She’s really keen to meet you. She’ll kill me if I don’t organise something soon.’

‘Sounds great,’ Emer said. ‘I’ll call you over the next few days and sort something out.’

After Dee paid the bill, she insisted on walking Emer back to her office.

‘You don’t have to do that,’ Emer said.

‘Nonsense,’ Dee said. ‘I’d like to see where you work. Besides, it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.’

They went outside into the warm sunshine and walked along the wide streets lined with glass and concrete skyscrapers, looking for Emer’s office block.

‘I always get confused,’ Emer said, when they’d walked down the same street for the third time. ‘Everywhere looks the same, doesn’t it? Ah. Here it is.’

She stopped outside one of the skyscrapers which, in fairness, looked pretty much like all the other buildings on this street.

‘I’d invite you to come in,’ Emer said, ‘but I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes. Thanks again, Dee. For everything.’

‘My pleasure.’ Dee leaned in to give Emer a hug. ‘Promise you’ll call?’

‘I promise.’ Emer extricated herself from Dee’s embrace. ‘Enjoy the rest of your day. See you soon, okay?’

As she walked through the revolving door and disappeared inside the building, Dee had a sudden rush of panic, fear that she might never see her cousin again. That Emer might simply disappear, just as Kitty had done all those years ago.

Here one minute, gone the next.

Later that evening, when she was back home, Dee called Leonard.

‘I’ve been to Annie’s studio and met her mother,’ Dee said. ‘It’s pretty clear she is who she says she is.’

‘Hardly a surprise,’ Leonard said. ‘Have you told Emer?’

‘Yes. She took it better than I expected, actually.’

‘So I can stop following Annie?’

‘God yes. I feel bad enough about intruding into her personal life.’

‘And the bloke in Stockwell?’

‘What bloke?’

‘The one I told you about. Annie went to meet him the other night. Old bloke, looked like he could be her dad maybe. I followed her. Didn’t you get my text? Hang on, let me check. Oh bugger. It didn’t send for some reason. Ah, I forgot. I can’t send text messages with attachments. Should have used WhatsApp. My neighbour set me up with that recently. We’ve got a group thingy so we can share information. Although, if you ask me, all they seem to do is send stupid bloody jokes to each other.’