I knew this was stretching the truth, but also knew they were in good hands. I rang Camilla to thank her.

‘Oh, it’s no problem. I have to do something with mine or they go a bit stir crazy. But I limit it to one couple at a time. And frankly, I’ve banned Nance.’

I smiled. ‘She’s incapacitated anyway, I saw her last night. She’s done something to her foot. Laid up.’

‘Ah. Well, sadly that won’t detain her for long; she’s a spirited old bird. Unlike that wet fish Daniel who flaps around looking after her.’

I so wished she hadn’t said that. I knew from Helena that Camilla had a sharp tongue: was a bit of a cow, in fact. But I still wished she hadn’t said it.

I found the Pret a Manger in Melrose Street quite easily and pushed through the plate-glass door.

The café was busy with lunchtime regulars, and by the time Josh arrived, I’d already made headway in quite a burgeoning queue. He appeared beside me with a smile. A social peck, we mutually decided was appropriate, since we’d met a few times already, and it was performed in a perfunctory manner. Nonetheless, a ridiculous frisson spiralled through me.

‘Coffee?’ I asked, wanting to break the ice quickly as we approached the counter.

‘Please. An espresso.’ He reached into a fridge for a chicken salad wrap.

I ordered the same but with a cappuccino, and insisted on paying since he was doing me a huge favour by meeting me. I wanted to make this as businesslike as possible in order to pick his highly intelligent brain.

The place was packed now, but we found two bar stools at the counter in the window, which luckily were reasonably private.

‘Thank you for meeting me,’ I told him as we settled ourselves down, trying but failing to keep the anxiety from my voice.

‘No problem. And I wanted to apologize. That text I sent you last night was unconsidered, and in retrospect, rather alarmist. I’ve given it some thought since, looked into it a bit more. I can’t say for sure, but I honestly think you’re overreacting here and that there really isn’t anything to worry about.’

‘Oh!’ I wanted to kiss him. On the lips. I very nearly did.

‘I know I said before that intent constitutes murder, but on reflection, this is more nuanced. The thing is, there’s no legal compunction to actually save a life. If you’re taking a walk in the park and someone is drowning in a lake, you don’t have to jump in.’

‘Really? You can just watch them drown?’

‘Obviously it’s not a natural reaction, but it’s not criminal. However, this is slightly different. It wasn’t a case of jumping into deep water. It was a case of picking up a phone.’

‘Yes.’