‘Saskia wrote about me on MyNeighbour?’ Beth can feel her heart kick up a gear at the thought of strangers reading about her actions on Thursday night. ‘What did she say?’

‘That you came across a man lying unconscious in the dead of night. That his heart had stopped and you had to do chest compressions.’

‘That’s bullshit,’ Beth whispers under her breath. ‘I hardly touched him.’

‘Saskia used to be a journalist, didn’t she?’ Lara asks, while simultaneously answering the question of why Saskia would embellish Beth’s story. ‘Look, I get that you’re not one to boast, but you shouldn’t feel embarrassed about people knowing how you helped that man.’

‘I didn’t help him in the end though,’ Beth whispers, not daring to look at Lara in case she sees sympathy on her friend’s face.

‘Darling, even if only half of what Saskia wrote is true, you were an absolute legend that night. It’s not your fault he died.’

‘I know, but …’ The image of that other squatter pops into her mind, his angry face bubbling with accusation. And of course there were the weeks leading up to that night, how she showed her disapproval of their being there. She just wants the whole thing over with. She walked past the empty shop unit this morning – it’s on the way to Ava’s football club on Wandsworth Common – and the police tape had already gone. Other than a new padlock on the door, there’s no evidence that anything untoward had happened there less than forty-eight hours earlier.

Except for Saskia now spreading the details on MyNeighbour.

Beth scratches her palm. How dare Saskia write about her experience without even asking. Isn’t she supposed to be a friend? Saskia is clearly feeding her desperate need to be in the thick of the drama without giving any thought to how Beth might feel about it. ‘I’m going to tell her to take it down,’ she says.

Lara lets out a resigned sigh, as though she was expecting Beth to say that. ‘I think you deserve all the hero worship you can get, but I understand why you’re upset. Saskia shouldn’t have posted anything without your permission, especially the photo.’

Beth’s heart freezes. ‘What photo?’ she asks, her earlier anger turning to dread. Did Saskia snap a picture of her when she was getting out of DC Stone’s police car?

‘I don’t know,’ Lara says with a shrug. ‘You look gorgeous in it though, no surprise there, snuggling next to Luna. Chloe, that’s the wrong goal for goodness’ sakes!’