He jumped. Perhaps I had just startled him, or maybe he knew I’d been arrested. Maybe he was afraid of me. He was a tall and gangly kid, still spotty with adolescence, and swathed in layers of hoody and beanie hat and tracksuit bottoms.

‘Hi,’ he said.

‘How are you getting on?’ Would I normally make the effort with these kids, or was I trying extra hard to be nice? To show him I wasn’t a killer?

‘Oh – yeah, fine. I like the dogs.’ His accent was from somewhere around London, I thought.

‘You’re studying to be a vet?’

‘Yeah. It’s hard.’

‘They say that’s the toughest course to get into, don’t they? Worse than medicine.’

‘I guess.’

A conversational wizard, this boy.

‘Well, have a good day, Callum. It is Callum?’

‘Er – yeah.’

‘I’m Rachel.’

He dipped his head down, the water plinking into the bowls making a sound I’d always loved. ‘I know.’ Of course he knew who I was, I was probably the talk of the town. There was no way someone hadn’t connected the dots and realised it was me who’d been arrested. I passed Katrin at the reception desk, her hair in two little bunches like I would have worn in the late nineties, and felt her eyes on me. That comfortable anonymity I had so treasured, it was all beginning to peel away, and I didn’t like it. As I moved past, with an awkward smile, I could see her phone was in her hand, and the old paranoia rose in me. But kids are always on their phones nowadays, it didn’t mean anything.

Inside, Marilyn was at her desk, talking on the phone.

‘I’m afraid that’s just our policy,’ she said. ‘A full background check and home visit. We can’t release these dogs to suffer any more, many of them have been through so much. Well, I don’t know if it would be easier to adopt a baby from China than get a dog. Yes, breeders will sell you one, but those dogs are often very damaged!’ She sighed deeply and put down the phone. ‘They hung up. People, eh? Give me animals any day.’ Then she realised it was me standing there. ‘Rachel! I didn’t expect . . .’

‘Why not?’ I went to put my bag and coat by my desk, then saw someone’s things were already there, a parka and a leather satchel. The screen was active, open to my Documents folder. Brandy, not noticing anything awry, had already run to her basket in the corner and was chewing on her squeaky mouse. ‘What’s this?’ I said, gesturing to my desk.

Marilyn bit her lip. ‘I asked Tom to cover for you. I assumed you wouldn’t be in.’

‘I haven’t been charged with anything, Marilyn. I’m just answering questions is all. They let me go.’