He’s already shaking his head as he looks back over his shoulder. ‘There isn’t anything you can do,’ he says. Then he goes back to staring at the apple tree at the bottom of the yard. Losing sleep does not suit Danny. He is going to be a royal pain in the ass when the baby arrives. ‘Did the cops say why she was looking for you?’ he says.

‘No. Just that she’s missing and they think she is looking for me, and if she gets in touch I’m to let them know.’

‘Who’s looking for you?’ Joanna says, bustling into the kitchen. I fill her in. Joanna seems a lot more interested than Danny does. Then again, she’s had a good night’s sleep in a hospital bed while Danny had to negotiate the steel chair by her side.

‘Are you okay?’ I say, placing my palm lightly on her bump. ‘The baby’s okay?’

‘It’s all good, Becca. I honestly thought I was in labor but it was just a false alarm.’ She nods towards Danny and puts a repentant look on her face. ‘Let’s hope it’s the only false alarm.’

‘Don’t mind him,’ I say. ‘He’ll have to get used to no sleep when the baby arrives.’

Danny comes back inside, takes his cell from where it is charging on the countertop and checks the screen.

‘So she didn’t call here?’ I say.

Danny glances up.

‘Who didn’t call here?’

‘Katie Collins. She didn’t come here looking for me?’

‘Of course she didn’t. Why would you think she would?’

‘Well, she called at Dad’s.’

‘She what?’

His face darkens with anger, like it’s my fault she went to Dad’s. As if I’m deliberately bringing unwanted grief down on the man.

‘So Bert said. He says she called, got no answer, then asked Bert if I lived there.’

Danny walks out of the room without saying another word, leaving Joanna and myself staring after him.

‘Well that’s a bit weird,’ I say. ‘What’s up with him?’

‘Oh don’t mind him, Becca, he’s a bit crabby lately. Missing a night’s sleep doesn’t help either.’

After twenty minutes of listening to Joanna’s account of her night in the hospital, I decide to leave. Danny hasn’t come back. Joanna says he’s probably on his computer in his man cave, but I don’t know. I think I pissed him off.

The evening traffic is a nightmare, and it takes me more than an hour to get back to my apartment. I knock on Jeff’s door but get no answer. Looks like I’m on my own tonight.

Standing by the window I look up at the darkening sky, wishing Jeff would call me up, ask me out to a movie or something. Anything to take my mind somewhere else for a while.