‘Hmmm.’ Caroline twiddles the card back and forth. ‘I could just take this with me when I return to London …’

‘I’d rather you didn’t.’ Fran holds out a palm and raises her eyebrows in the direction of the card.

‘I won’t watch your session, I promise.’

Fran isn’t entirely sure whether she believes her. It’s not that she doesn’t trust her new friend – she’s entirely convinced that she wants to solve the mystery of Jenna’s murder – but she is a journalist. In Caroline’s shoes, she’d want to examine every last second of the footage.

‘I think we should watch it now,’ she says.

‘How? We’ve both got iPhones and neither of us has got a laptop.’

‘Kate has. I saw it on the first day. She was carrying it under her arm.’

Caroline sits up taller. ‘Where does she keep it?’

‘I don’t know. In her room, I imagine.’

‘And I bet she keeps her door locked.’

‘I’d imagine so.’

‘We can’t ask to borrow it. The minute she sees the spy cam is missing she’ll know why.’

‘So we put it back,’ Fran says. ‘Minus the SSD card.’

‘Too risky.’ Caroline drums her fingers against her cheek as she stares at Fran, lost in thought.

Fran thinks too. At that very moment, Kate is in her room upstairs, pretending to have a migraine. In that room is the laptop. How to separate one from the other and ensure that she doesn’t lock the door behind her when she leaves? Her gaze settles on Caroline’s bedside table. And the lighter, lying on top of a packet of Marlboro Lights.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ she says.

Chapter 39

Now

KATE

Kate paces the small stretch of carpet between the base of the bed and the dressing table.

She’s been hiding away in her room for what feels like days but can’t be more than a couple of hours, and she’s still no closer to finding a way to stop Caroline’s story from getting out. She feels like an idiot for even thinking about murdering the woman. It was a rash idea, born of desperation and it probably would have failed, even if she hadn’t fallen off the walkway.

And it was humiliating, dangling from the rope like a tampon, swinging back and forth. As Kate fell she heard a gasp, then a gale of female laughter. It was enough to make her want to unclip her harness and drop.