‘I’m on my way,’ said Bloom. ‘I’ll call you from the car.’ She hung up and dressed quickly in trousers and a cashmere jumper.

When she was on the motorway, she called Karene again. ‘I’ll be there in three hours thirty according to the satnav. Is Harry OK?’

‘He’s in a coma.’

A coma would explain his lack of contact. At least he was alive. ‘You said it was all wrong? Why do you say that?’

‘What’s he doing in Exeter? It makes no sense. Why would they bring him here?’

‘It was a chaotic situation,’ said Bloom. Before leaving she had checked the location of Exeter Hospital and found it was nearly fifty miles from Devonport Naval Base. ‘The hospitals might have been overwhelmed.’ It sounded logical enough but she knew the most logical explanation was not always reality.

‘But there were only twelve injured.’

‘They wouldn’t have known that when the ambulances were dispatched,’ said Bloom. ‘Perhaps they requested some from the surrounding areas? Has he been there the whole time?’

‘But there’s more,’ said Karene, ignoring her question. ‘It’s his injuries, Augusta. I saw him before the paramedics took him away. I remember thinking how lucky he had been. How lucky I had been. Do you remember? I said to you, didn’t I, that he seemed OK?’

Bloom could tell that Karene was on the verge of tears. She softened her voice. ‘But the medic did say that it might be worse than it looked?’

‘He said there might be internal injuries. Things I couldn’t see. Not this …’ The line went quiet.

Bloom waited.

‘Augusta, his face is covered in bruises and they’re telling me he has significant head injuries. He had no head injuries. It was just a small scratch on his face. I checked him. I felt his head. There was nothing.’ She took a juddering intake of breath. ‘He’s in a coma. He has a huge wound on the side of his head. He’d have been bleeding. I wouldn’t have missed that. They say he may have brain damage.’

Bloom felt a churn of discomfort at her friend’s words. What had happened to this man? ‘I’m on my way. Don’t do anything. I’ll be there soon.’

Bloom called Jameson as she pulled up to the hospital. It was early, but she needed to fill him in and she didn’t know when she’d next get the chance. She listened to the phone ringing. She still felt a pang of dread whenever she dialled his number, the fear that he might not answer.

‘Give a man a chance,’ he said.

‘Karene’s found Harry. He’s at Exeter Hospital.’

‘Well, great. Then we’re done, right? Mystery solved.’

‘Not exactly. Karene says his head injuries are more severe than she remembers, far worse than anything he sustained in the explosion.’