My legs feel like jelly as I walk inside. The one person who can tell me the truth about Tom could be in here. The woman who called herself his ex. Another woman who’s known Tom, been with Tom. Who claims to know more about him than I do.

I go up to the front desk inside the plush building and ask to speak to Jess Caton.

‘Do you have an appointment?’ the young woman asks me.

‘Uh, no. But I was told I needed to come here to speak to her.’

‘Okay, can I take a few details?’

I decide to give her the important bits before she asks for anything awkward. ‘Yes, my name’s Grace O’Sullivan. The officer at Bideford Police Station said I needed to come here to speak to Jess Caton.’ Not technically a lie. ‘He said he’d give her a call with my details too, so she should be expecting me.’

‘Okay, just a moment,’ she says, picking up her phone.

As she does so, my own phone starts vibrating in my pocket. It’s a withheld number. I glance at my watch, and realise the time. Could it be Tom? Has he landed in Japan yet? He said he’d ring me as soon as he had. He wasn’t meant to arrive until the evening our time. I answer the call.

‘Is that Grace?’ the voice says. It’s a woman. I know exactly who it is. And she doesn’t seem at all surprised to hear from me.

‘Yeah,’ I say, my voice weak.

‘It’s Jess Caton. Listen, can you meet me in an hour?’

41

I tell the woman behind the desk not to worry, and that Jess has been in touch. I thank her, and head back to my car.

My heart’s pounding and I feel sick again. The officer from Bideford must have managed to get a message to Jess. She wants to meet me at six o’clock in a pub called The Garland Ox. I look it up on my phone and see it’s in the centre of town.

There’s a Premier Inn a mile or so away from here which apparently has availability. It’s a twenty-five minute walk from the pub. It won’t leave me much time to check in and have a shower for the first time since yesterday morning, so I pull out of the car park and head for the hotel.

When I arrive, I check in and head straight for my room. The shower is hot and soothing, and I start to feel the first signs of my hangover clearing. I stay under the water for as long as I can — which is only about five minutes — before drying myself off and getting changed. A couple of minutes after half-past five, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, and I leave the hotel and walk in the direction of the town centre.

It’s cold out, and I wish I’d brought some warmer clothes with me, but there’s not much I can do about that now. The cold will help clear the rest of the hangover. In any case, I’ve got other things on my mind right now.