‘I had a fucking awful day. The worst. I don’t want to go home to my family. Half the people in this town come through my clinic and they all know me, so wherever I go someone’s watching. I just need to get away. Work out what to do. No one appreciates how hard it is.’ He takes out a bottle of water and a bottle of tablets, and shakes three pills into his hand and downs them.

‘You’re on drugs,’ I say.

‘Medication!’

‘So you didn’t come back in here to kill me?’

He laughs, but it’s a barking, scary kind of laugh. ‘Why would I do that? My life is shit enough already, thanks. If I did, you wouldn’t even be the first person I killed today. Most people make a mistake at work and nothing happens. Maybe they have to sort out the paperwork a bit later when it gets noticed. I make a mistake at work and someone dies. I killed someone. I killed a patient. She was only young. I panicked and changed the records to make it look as if I hadn’t done anything. I made it look as if her heart just gave out. What do you think about that? I made a mistake and, by the time I realized, it was too late. So I covered it up. It’s one of those things that happens from time to time, but fucking hell! Fucking hell! You’re meant to own up and take everything they throw at you.’

I watch as he punches the wall. I think of Ariel’s stories about him doing that.

‘You can’t tell anyone this.’

So that’s what it was. He’d told me what he’d done, and then realized I was going to dob him in. I wish I could tell Ariel, but there’s nothing I can do because I’m not going back to 2019 ever again.

‘I’m going to call the police,’ I say. I probably said it less baldly first time around, but I just need to get through this now. ‘I’m going to call them as soon as I get home. You can’t get away with killing someone and faking the paperwork or whatever.’

I stand up and walk towards the door, just in case that turns out to be possible, but it isn’t. My legs won’t take me across the threshold, and my hands won’t reach for the handle.

His hand is on my shoulder. He grips it tightly. Here we go.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To tell someone what you just told me.’

‘No one would believe you. I’d deny it.’