However, when she looked through the bookings she noticed an unusually high number of participants who’d registered home addresses in London, which was odd as her Facebook adverts had targeted people living less than two hours from the retreat. She recognised one name immediately – a tabloid journalist who’d hounded them after Tom was released from prison. She cancelled his booking then set about checking the other names. She cross checked the rest of the names in her inbox, found two more journalists and cancelled their bookings too. A Google search revealed three more. But what of the remaining twenty-one people? How many were journalists using pseudonyms? She spent hours searching social media, looking for Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, trying to ascertain who was a ‘normal person’ and who was trying to sneak under the radar. Her snooping reassured her that ten people on her list were safe – their Facebook pages were open to the public and she could see photos of family gatherings, gripes about the road closures and boring, mundane updates about work, health and the weather. That left eleven with question marks against their names. She emailed them, asking them to provide her a photo ‘for her records’ and ran them through a Google image search. The results didn’t reveal any more journalists but she did discover a psychologist and an author who’d both registered using pseudonyms. She cancelled both bookings. Of the nineteen people left only nine of them paid. It’s still enough to give her and Tom a few months of financial freedom but she’s still worried there’s a journalist in the room, someone who slipped through her net.

Kate adds to her notes as Tom moves around the room.

Joy O’Brien – small and round, rainbow jumper, gave Tom an adoring look as he approached her, stood for a hug when he offered his hand. Looks delighted to be here.

Peter Kitson – thin man in his early sixties, openly scowled when Tom hugged the woman beside him. Possibly journalist?

Priyanka Singh – Early sixties. Bereaved. Lonely. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Geraldine Rotheram – reserved, sceptical look on her face as she watched Tom work the room. Looks ill at ease. Journalist?

She doesn’t bother making notes on Renata Scanlon, Phoenix Bloom or Damian Strang, all of whom have been on previous retreats and certainly aren’t journalists.

Kate continues to write as Tom greets the final two guests, noting down anyone who is gazing around the room as though they’re mentally making notes. As Tom finishes speaking to the last guest Kate tries to settle herself. The chances are she’s being paranoid and, even if there is a journalist in their midst, what are they going to say? There won’t be any scandal or deaths at this retreat and anyone who tries to dig around in the past will find themselves given very short shrift.