‘There’s no evidence of any illegal activity. He’s very clever.’

‘What about this?’ I say, unzipping my coat to show her the marks on my neck.

‘Was that him?’ She asks. I nod. ‘We can log that for you if you want. But I doubt it’ll do much good. It’ll be your word against his, and it’s extremely unlikely anything will be done about it. Even if it is, he’ll get off with a warning and a free pass to do whatever he wants to you. And I seriously, honestly dread to think what that could be, Grace. Don’t forget this is a man who doesn’t have a stable grip on reality. He’s willing to lie, cheat and live a false double life in order to get what he wants. He’ll go to whatever lengths it takes to keep the truth a secret. He’s quite literally built his whole life around it. I’m pretty sure the only reason I managed to get out and scare him off is because of my job. He knew he had too much to lose and had bitten off more than he could chew. At first, he must have seen me as a challenge. Turns out it was a challenge that was beyond him.’

My head is all over the place. ‘Okay,’ I say. ‘Let’s assume for one minute I believe all this. I mean, I don’t want to. But if I do. What now? I can’t scare him off like you did. And what if he comes back? Surely now that two of us know the truth, if he is what you say he is, isn’t that too much for him to risk?’

‘I’m not going to lie to you, Grace,’ Jess replies, her voice lowered. ‘That’s a very real risk. And it’s one I’m deeply worried about. That’s why I needed to get in touch with you. It’s why I used your work email address. I presumed that would be safe from him.’

We share a look, and it’s one I don’t like. One which tells me absolutely nothing on this planet is safe from Tom Ramsay.

‘What, then?’ I ask. ‘If the police can’t do anything and I can’t do anything, what am I supposed to do?’

Jess stays silent for a few moments, and I can see she hadn’t quite thought this far ahead.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ she says, eventually. ‘If he’s tracking your location, he’ll be doing that using some software installed on the handset. We need to get you a new handset and put your SIM card in it. Then you’ll still be able to contact him and confirm he’s in Japan. That’ll buy us a few days.’

‘And how do I explain that? If he suddenly can’t track me, won’t it look suspicious?’

‘No. Tell him you lost your phone or it got stolen. That’d explain it going offline for a while and could even help cover your tracks if he does manage to see it’s been on the move. It’s not perfect, but it’s all we’ve got.’