‘It sounds utterly amazing,’ I said, meaning it. I wondered if I might ever get to visit there. ‘Who were you there with?’

‘Oskar, Chloe, Wallace.’

Chloe. ‘Did she come back at the same time as you?’

‘Well, sure. I . . .’

‘I have to go,’ I said, standing and heading for the door.

I thought I heard Selwyn call after me, but I didn’t stop.

I had to find her, and hope she was willing to tell me the truth about my predecessor.

Chloe was in front of her house when I got there just ten minutes later, a rucksack by the door. Like Randall, her clothes were caked with dirt, and she was in the process of pulling off a heavy parka. She did a literal double-take when she saw me, and I could see her mentally weighing the pros and cons of engaging with me. I was still breathing hard from running all the way across town.

I put up a hand. ‘I’m not here to cause any trouble,’ I said. ‘But I need to talk to you about the diaries.’

‘Jerry . . .’

‘Look, all I want to know is how things got so bad between you that he would hit you. Because I want you to know, right now, that however much he looked like me or talked like me or anything else, I am absolutely, positively not that man.’

She stared at me, nonplussed. ‘Who hit me?’

I looked back at her, equally confused. ‘I did. I mean the other Jerry did. He assaulted you, more than once.’

She laughed, which I hadn’t expected. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘The diaries,’ I repeated. ‘He wrote about what happened, when things got so bad he struck you with his fists. I just – I really need to talk to you about it, Chloe. If you don’t want to talk to me, I understand. But I also need you to understand that there’s no way I would ever, under any circumstances—’

‘No bullshit?’ she said, interrupting me and stepping closer. ‘That’s what he wrote? You’re sure of this?’

‘Yes. In the diary I took from here. I . . .’ I halted, suddenly lost for words. ‘Don’t you . . . ?’

She came to stand on the other side of the gate from me. ‘He never hit me,’ she said carefully. ‘Not once. And, frankly, if he’d ever tried something like that, I’d have taken the son of a bitch down, hard.’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t know exactly what you read, but it sounds to me like you got it wrong.’

I felt my face grow red. Could I have got it wrong? Was it possible I could have so badly misunderstood the other Jerry’s words? I didn’t see how. He had been unsparing in his description of the pain he had inflicted.

‘Can I come in for a moment?’ I asked her.