Adrian was her mum’s boyfriend. He said that he was involved with construction in the film industry – a carpenter or plasterer or something – but it hadn’t taken Justine long to realise what he really was. Every time they were alone he’d sit close beside her, make salacious comments that made her skin crawl. Justine had told her mum, but Mum refused to believe it: ‘You’re jealous. Trying to spoil this for me …’

Their house in Bristol had always been a sanctuary for her, a safe place where she could shut out the outside world, and surround herself with the things that made her happy. Adrian’s arrival had changed all that, and now, every time that she returned home to find his big, black SUV parked outside, the house seemed like the most dangerous place in the world.

Better the streets on her own than back there with him.

That had been over three weeks ago now. Pulling up the collar of her sodden coat, she heaved her rucksack higher onto her shoulder and set off through the sea of people hurrying though the rain-soaked streets. She wondered for the thousandth time if anyone was looking for her. Every day she was afraid of being sighted, and just as scared of staying lost.

It’ll get easier, she told herself, wondering if she’d ever really believe that.

She made her way east along the Strand, the crowds thinning out as she left the theatre district behind her, trudged past the law courts on Fleet Street and entered the quiet calm of the City of London. The financial district was bustling with people during weeknights, but at the weekends it was virtually deserted, and that suited Justine just fine.

She hurried on past the huge, historic buildings that still dominated this part of London – St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange – and made her way into the tangle of narrow passageways that wound their way through Cheapside. The ancient stone buildings now gave way to modern structures of steel and glass, and the Portacabins and heavy machinery of the construction sites that littered the roads at the foot of each.

She turned into another alleyway, ignoring the ‘road closed’ and ‘diversion’ signs and making her way towards the steel fence that had been erected at the far end. Checking that there was no one watching, Justine quickly scaled the fence, dropping nimbly onto the freshly laid tarmac on the other side. She hurried across the deserted building site, splashing through huge shallow puddles of rainwater to where a huge pile of air-conditioning ducting sat swathed in tarpaulins at the base of a towering construction crane.