GABE READS THE words we had prepared in that plaintive voice of his. ‘That’s right, his name is Joe and he has been stalking people in the South Yarra area. I also believe he was involved with a fire on Gilson Terrace.’ I stand there listening with the tip of my thumbnail between my front teeth. It’s an anonymous service, and his phone number is set to private but still I think about the possibility of this call being traced to me somehow.

Afterwards in bed he holds me from behind, and I hold myself as if it takes both of us to keep everything together. Meeting Cormac at a bar, Joe potentially trying to kill me and my family, and now we’ve prompted the police to investigate him. My career is a house of cards waiting for a gentle breeze to tip it over.

•

In the morning, I stop off at Black Bean cafe, I order a coffee and stand waiting. The barista isn’t as effervescent today. Cormac, I think.

‘How are you?’ she says to me, without a smile or eye contact.

‘I’m okay, it’s been a long week.’

‘Tell me about it.’

She places the takeaway cup down for me, I grab it and turn to leave as she starts the next order but then I stop. ‘Can I ask you a question?’

She looks up, her perfectly shaped eyebrows rising. ‘Sure.’

‘Does the Irish guy still work here?’

She gives a small huff, somewhere between defeat and amusement. ‘No,’ she says. ‘He quit, actually.’

‘Oh, that’s a shame.’

She raises her eyes to me again. ‘A shame?’

‘He seemed nice.’

‘You mustn’t know him very well.’

I head to my office. I’m carrying my coffee and my bag, when Anna sees me from behind the desk. She buzzes the door and I lean against it to open it. Sarah is with a client.

‘Hi,’ I say.

‘Hello,’ she says, formal, stiff. Her eyes move from me to the corner of the room and I see the big shape of him sitting there.

‘Joe,’ I say, glancing at the clock above reception. It’s only 9:40 am.

‘Sorry, I’m early.’ His expression remains neutral.

Very early, I think. I push a smile onto my face. ‘No worries, won’t be long.’

I go to my office and set it up, placing two glasses and a carafe of water on the coffee table. I’m about to have a potentially dangerous man in a closed room with me. My heart is thumping in my chest. I knew this was coming but I didn’t think I would be so afraid when the moment arrived. He’s smart enough to know he can’t hurt me here, with a witness sitting at the front desk, but still the thought chills me.