Relief floods through Beth; she’s managed to drag Saskia’s attention away from her phone call. But she needs to keep going if she’s going to stem Saskia’s suspicion permanently and she doesn’t know what to ask for. Then she thinks about Luna, and Kat’s offer to walk her this evening after her aborted attempt last night. She accepted at the time, she remembers now, but she can’t let that happen. She can’t face that stoical dog walker ever again. ‘Could you walk Luna later?’ she spurts out.

‘Luna?’ Saskia repeats. ‘Um, yes, I suppose I can do that, if it would help.’

‘It would, thank you,’ Beth whispers. Then she turns away from Saskia and stumbles back inside.

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Kat

Kat is putting in a rare appearance behind the reception desk when the bell above the door jangles. She looks up. But it’s not a customer, not even a dog owner. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asks, her voice rising an octave with each word.

‘Well, that’s not much of a welcome,’ her mum responds in a tone somewhere between offended and confused. ‘I’m here because you invited me.’

‘I did?’ Kat walks out from behind the desk, and they share an awkward hug, Kat like a teenager in a sports car – heavy foot swapping between accelerator and brake – and her mum slow and formal, like she’s trying to pinpoint the right muscle memory but having to rely on a stock response instead. As Kat pulls away, her mind starts rattling through the sporadic conversations they’ve had over the last few months. Her mum and Javier still live in Kat’s childhood home, and she avoids visiting as much as possible, but she does still phone her mum from time to time, and usually after a few bottles of Brixton Pale Ale, so it’s possible that she suggested a visit.

‘You said that I should come and see where you work. That it would be nice for us to spend a bit of time together, just the two of us,’ her mum explains, pulling off her tawny knee-length coat and draping it over one arm. She’s wearing an elegant sage green woollen dress underneath, a stark contrast to her daughter’s camo pants and sweatshirt. Kat considers her mum’s words. That is the sort of thing she’d say once alcohol had loosened her tongue. Even at 34, she hasn’t managed to completely cull her dreams about their building a better relationship. For one special weekend when she was 16, she’d felt like they were finding their way back to each other. It wasn’t to be – it was just the final act before the curtain came crashing down – but that doesn’t stop Kat reminiscing from time to time.