‘Oh! Thanks Johnny.’ She took it from him, blowing him a kiss and heading for the car again. The driver was standing beside the open door with a look of barely concealed agitation. ‘Hey Mia! I’m literally – literally – leaving now! I’m so late!’ What time was it there? Half six in the morning?

‘Clo? Is that you?’

Clover’s feet stopped moving at the sound of her friend’s voice. It sounded crazy-glazed, as if Mia’s very surface was covered in cracks, as if she was breaking apart. ‘What is it? What’s happened?’

Her own voice sounded peculiar too: it was strangled, inflected with strain. She saw a frown crease Johnny’s brow.

‘Cory’s gone.’

For a moment, the words rang in her head, empty and meaningless, just a swirl of sound. ‘What do you mean, gone? Gone where? Like, out?’

‘We don’t know where he is. He’s been sleeping on the sofa the last few nights but when the kids woke up this morning, he wasn’t here.’ Mia’s voice rose in pitch, panic fraying at the edges.

‘Well, has he gone for a walk? The fresh air helps his head.’

‘No, it’s not that. I know it’s not.’ There was an ominous silence; Clover could hear Mia’s breathing was rapid and shallow. ‘I told him, Clo, last night . . . I told him we have to sell the house.’

Oh god. ‘How did he take it?’

‘At first he just stared at me and didn’t say a word.’ Her voice slipped into the next octave. ‘Then he said if I thought it was for the best . . .’

‘That was it?’

‘I could see he was upset – but I thought he understood that there’s no other way.’

Clover swallowed, determined to be optimistic. ‘So then he’s gone for a walk. He’s thinking it all through and processing the news.’

Mia’s voice cracked suddenly, the emotion breaking through. ‘No. He’s not walking. There’s a storm blowing in. Offshore wind, swell from the west.’

Clover knew what those conditions meant. Right around the headland from Ross Cove, where their cottage sat, lay Mavericks. Big wave country.

‘His board’s gone.’

Those three words were like little tombstones. Clover felt the ground drop an inch beneath her feet. She had to step back to balance herself as the reason for this call finally shot across the ocean and down the phone, right into her ear, her brain, her heart.

Mia’s voice, when it came back, was tiny, as though curled up inside itself. ‘They’re out looking for him now. Everyone. There’s more people on that beach and in the water than I’ve ever seen. Guys risking their lives . . .’ Her voice broke off.