Holly rushes in, a little breathless at being summoned, blue eyes wide as she stares adoringly up at Stuart. He tells her to speak to the Spire, Bristol’s premier private hospital, the one that I now remember is in Henleaze, and which the consultant suggested my father might have been to. Stuart wants Holly to organize a brain scan for Bethany. ‘Just need access to the MRI or a CAT or whatnot, and a nurse or two. We don’t have to actually scan her. Tell Jen to arrange it with the crew, right after they’ve wrapped here. And find a blanket to put round Bee when we’re filming her on the sofa. She needs to look like an invalid.’

‘Give me a second,’ Bethany says, weaving round them. ‘I’ll walk you out.’

She takes my arm and leads me past Jen, who is barking at someone down the phone, the sound recordist and the real photographer, who is lugging his kit in as we reach her front door.

‘How the hell can you even look at that bastard?’

‘Shush, keep your voice down. It’s going to be amazing for my career,’ she says. ‘I can do something serious for once. Come on, Nick, don’t stuff it up for me.’

‘Bethany! He raped you! What are you doing?’

‘He’s promised he’ll talk to the producers of The Show.’

I ball my hands into fists, take a breath, count to four. ‘You told me you were drunk. You said you weren’t attacked on that beach. Which is it?’

‘Not so loud! I was drunk, I told you that. But this story sounds better on TV,’ she says.

I’m not sure what to believe. ‘Dr Virgili said you had to have a brain scan. Have you got a headache? Tell me the truth this time.’

She hesitates for a fraction of a second. ‘I’ve taken four ibuprofen this morning.’ She holds the door open for me. ‘Call you later, yeah?’

‘Bee. I know you didn’t take Dad for that dementia appointment.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘At The Castle. It’s in his diary. When I called them to make a follow-up appointment, they said he’d come in for a medical. You didn’t take him to the Memory Clinic.’

‘You’re an idiot. I don’t know anything about him having a medical. I took Dad to the Spire. The one I’m about to go to.’

‘For your fake brain scan.’

‘Whatever. Like I said, I’ll make Dad an appointment when this is all over.’

Now it’s my turn to gape at her, but she pushes me out and is about to shut the door when I wedge my elbow in the frame.

‘Wait. What was the argument with Joe all about?’