Sara’s heart sank. Hailey dealt with young people who were the victims of abuse and neglect and helped them find a more positive future, but she was fiercely protective of her service users and that sometimes got her into trouble. She tugged at her hair. So close to finding out what was going on, and yet… ‘Can’t you just peek through the door? Nobody will notice.’

Hailey sighed. ‘Okay. He wasn’t looking excited, though, I can tell you that. In fact, he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.’

Guilt would do that to a person, Sara thought. ‘Go on then,’ she urged. ‘Please.’

Hailey’s breath crackled down the phone. ‘Right, back in a sec.’

Sara paced up and down the kitchen as she waited. Turned on the oven. Got the pizzas ready. Set the table. At last her phone rang. She picked it up. ‘That was a long bloody sec.’

‘Yeah, well, I couldn’t see him from the front door, so I walked round the back and sneaked in. But he wasn’t at the bar. I had a quick scoot round before anyone saw me, but I couldn’t spot him anywhere. Must have been in the loos, because his car’s still out front.’

‘Any women sitting on their own, like they were waiting for someone?’

‘There were all sorts of people in there.’ Hailey sounded a bit cagey and Sara wondered if she was telling her everything, worried perhaps that she would jump to the wrong conclusion. ‘Look, I’ll wait outside and keep checking on what’s happening if you like.’

‘Are you sure?’ Sara stopped pacing. ‘I don’t want you hanging around.’

‘No problem.’ The line went dead.

Nerves tugged at Sara’s belly. It wasn’t like Matt to drink during the day. In fact, he had a rule that he didn’t drink during the week, saving his alcohol quota for Saturdays. It was what he’d always done. Or at least she thought he had. Now she was wondering if she knew his habits as well as she’d thought she did.

She busied herself with getting the pizzas in the oven, checked that Ezra was still awake and spent ten minutes folding clothes into piles, one for each family member. Just as she was about to call the girls down for their food, the door opened and in walked Matt.

She gaped at him in stunned silence as he threw his briefcase on the floor, slung his jacket after it and headed straight for the fridge, where he pulled out one of his weekend beers and cracked it open, taking a big slug.

‘Matt, what’s going on?’

He glugged his beer, not stopping until the bottle was empty. Then he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth before he finally looked at her. ‘We need to talk.’