Fryent Country Park wasn’t too far away. A few miles north-west, near the bottom of the M1, but still in London. Ben did his triathlon training there, something about being able to run and run without bumping into anyone you knew when you were red-faced and pouring sweat like you were going to have a heart attack. I guessed he knew it pretty well. The satellite image on Google Earth showed an open-air stage by a lake in the southern part of the park. It looked fairly isolated on the map, plenty of trees and no houses nearby. It was an interesting choice. If he had wanted to meet in public, with lots of witnesses and bystanders, he could have chosen one of a thousand other places. But instead he had chosen a big country park with plenty of trees and uneven ground where – at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning – we might not see another soul.

The phone buzzed in my hand. Another text.

Come alone

5.31 p.m. Ben mob

I stared at his latest message for a moment before returning to the Google Earth image. Come alone. It hadn’t occurred to me to do anything else, but I would need to take precautions. Get there early and check the place out. Tell Mel where I was going, too? I couldn’t bring myself to confide in her, not yet. She had kept the truth from me for months, and it was better that she didn’t know her ex-lover was asking to meet. No one at school could know either, because meeting him on a Monday morning meant taking a sickie from work. Nor could Adam, because I knew he’d advise me against the meeting, but it was something that I had to do. Should I take a weapon, in case Ben kicked off? Bad idea. Really bad.

There was a much better option.

I found the business card with PC Khan’s name on it and dialled the number. It went through to a duty sergeant and I explained who I was, asking that a message to be passed on to the demand management inspector as soon as possible in the morning, telling them where and when Ben had asked to meet. I asked – if it was possible – for an officer to meet me at the entrance to the country park so they could see Ben for themselves. See that he wasn’t missing any more. Put an end to this charade.