‘And can you confirm whether you are any closer to catching Rhiannon?’

‘We are following a number of lines of inquiry but it is too soon to say…’

Which meant no. I couldn’t stop my mouth from stretching into a wide smile. Safe and well and in good hands. That was all I needed to know. They had a small fridge in the gym with fresh flannels rolled up in neat stacks. I was dabbing myself as Ryan sauntered over to grab one himself.

‘Hey, Hilary,’ he said, one fingerless-gloved hand around an isotonic drink. He’d generated enough sweat on his cotton vest to float a lifeboat. ‘I saw you deep in concentration there so I didn’t want to disturb.’

‘Ahh cheers, yeah, trying to work off some choccy biccies I had earlier,’ I said brightly, almost bouncing with renewed energy.

‘We’ve been hitting the chocolate a bit lately too. Jayde gets pissed off with all my training but I don’t wanna stop it cos it makes you lazy.’

‘I agree,’ I said, wiping my brow. He was shifting about on his feet and I have learned that this is a tell that people are trying to get away from you. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of dumping my ass like his beautiful bitch wife had done at lunch the other day at lunch so I got in there first.

‘Well, have a good one, catch you later!’ I was halfway to the door.

‘Hang on a sec,’ he said, as my face flashed on the screen behind him – a different photo where Craig had been cropped out at the Gazette’s last Christmas party. Lana was in the background, drinking WKD.

‘What’s up?’ I said, feet pointing in the direction I needed to go – out.

‘Jayde wanted to apologise for leaving you in the shit yesterday. She said you’d gone to lunch with her and she had to go. She wanted to explain.’

‘Oh no wukkas,’ I said, with a flap. ‘My language can be a bit much when I’ve blown the froth off a few. I’d avoid me too if I had the chance!’

‘No, no, it wasn’t you,’ he said urgently, still shifting awkwardly. ‘We had a bit of an emergency – Jayde miscarried.’

‘Miscarried?’ I said, my whole body flushing through with ice water. The little fridge towel was warm in my hand. ‘She was pregnant?’

‘Yeah.’ Ryan looked down. ‘Only eight weeks. We weren’t going to tell anyone yet…’ His face changed – he was crying. ‘It was awful. She’s being a warrior as usual and I’m the mess. I haven’t left her side till now – she made me come down here and… I can’t focus. Anyway, she wanted you to know she’s sorry she left you.’

‘It doesn’t matter, Ryan,’ I said quietly. The picture behind him was of my face again, square on, green eyes, unmistakable.