He didn’t answer his mobile so in case he was ignoring her, she called his office and left a message with his assistant. Next she rang Carly.

‘Oh, hi, how are you?’ Jolly, no wariness.

‘I’m okay. Carly, have you heard from Len at all?’

‘You mean today? No.’ To one side, more quietly, ‘It’s Lennie’s mum.’

‘When you spoke to her last time, did she mention going anywhere at all?’

‘How d’you mean?’

‘I don’t know. Anywhere – anything. Coming to see you, maybe.’

‘Hold on.’ Another rustle. ‘Em, have you spoken to her? Did she say anything to you?’

‘No,’ said an awed voice in the background. ‘Is she missing?’

A minute or so later, her mother called. ‘She’s not at Hall Green. I asked the man in the ticket office, I showed him the picture in my purse, but he hadn’t seen her. He says she definitely hasn’t bought a ticket.’

It was half past four now and the road into town was barely moving, three cars at the most getting through at each change of the lights. The road was clotted with buses; they seemed to pull out from every stop she passed, one after another.

A phone rang but not through the Bluetooth. It sounded faintly muffled and on the third ring, she realized it was coming from under the passenger seat. The pay-as-you-go – it must have fallen down there last night on the way either to or from Bath. She undid her seatbelt and leaned over, only just getting her fingertips on it.

Number withheld.

‘Hello?’

‘Is this Robin?’ A man’s voice, deep, local. Friendly. She didn’t recognize it.

‘Yes, speaking,’ she said. ‘Who’s this?’

A rustling sound as if the phone were being handed over. ‘Say hello, sweetheart,’ she heard him say.

‘Mum?’

Lennie? What? She was confused – what was going on?

‘Mum!’

She was crying, sobbing. She was frightened. No, not frightened. Terrified.

Robin’s heart stopped. A cold hand took hold of it, squeezed – she couldn’t get a breath. She couldn’t breathe.

‘Give me that back now,’ said the voice, warm, paternal, a dad taking his phone from a child who’d sneaked it to watch YouTube videos.

‘Right,’ he said to Robin. ‘You know what all this is about, don’t you? You get it?’

Her mind emptied and then, with a roar like an oncoming truck, it filled with a thousand things, swirling, incoherent. Images, voices, bits of information, all scrambled. Becca, Tarryn. Corinna, Ana. A parade of women – girls. And a smiling face leaning across to open the car door.