Robin looked around and then back to her. “Have you ever heard of Standedge?”

She thought for a moment. “No, what is that—a band?”

“I don’t know,” Robin said.

She stared at Robin. She was only four minutes older than him—but caught in the path of one of those stares, it felt like four minutes made all the difference. “What happened?”

Robin looked away, rebuking the challenge. “Nothing.”

“Ah, good,” she said, her demeanor changing. “Do you want coffee or shall we get the bill?” Which was subtext and reverse psychology all at the same time. Sometimes Robin thought Emma would give even a clairvoyant a headache.

Robin caved. He opened up the hardback and showed her the notes he’d made, guiding her through the conversation with Matthew. Ending on Sam.

She listened closely, not betraying her feelings until she had heard the full story. When Robin was done, she was quiet for a moment, thinking. After a beat, she said, “And this is what’s got you all—” she waved a hand at him “—whatever this is?”

Robin was a little taken aback. “Did you hear...? He said Sam. He said he’d talked to Sam.”

She sighed and looked at him sadly. “It was just a stupid prank, Robin. Your first impressions were correct. He was having you on. Somehow—who knows how—he got your number and thought he’d have a bit of fun with you. And it sounds like he had a great time.”

“You didn’t hear him talk about this thing. This Standedge. And his friends. He sounded... He sounded like he’d lost something. Someone.” Robin stumbled over what he was trying to say, and didn’t want to say what was next, as though it would make it real. “He sounded like me.”

“Robin...” Emma started.

But Robin interrupted. “You remember that day you came to my flat with the laptop and told me to write it down. The day I started writing Without Her.”

“You were sitting at the kitchen table staring at a bottle of Jack Daniel’s,” Emma said.

“Yes,” Robin said, “I was lost. And you helped me. You helped me find a way through it. Matthew sounded like me that day. He sounded lost too.”

“And what?” Emma said, almost flippantly. “Sam has led him to you.”

Robin threw up his hands. “I don’t know—maybe. I...I don’t know.”

Emma’s phone rang, and she looked at it before declining the call. “I have to go but we’re talking about this later. Don’t let this open old wounds, Robin. It was just some idiot getting some jollies at your expense. Don’t play his game. Focus on other things. Don’t you have a meeting on Monday with your publisher?”