‘As I say, I’m sleeping with one eye open.’ He forces a smile. ‘But when I think about it rationally, I know she’s going to have to look really hard to find me because, thanks to your help, I couldn’t have covered my tracks any better than I have.’

He looks at me as if searching for confirmation and I nod. Even with the keenest eye and the most dogged determination, she’d have a job to find him.

But as I think of the lengths we have gone to, I’m struck by the thought that she, the woman who doesn’t even have a name, might be prepared to go one step further.

I glance at the cabinet that holds my clients’ deepest secrets, the drawer that should have protected Jacob’s thoughts and fantasies still ajar, and a sudden chill wraps itself around me.

‘So again,’ he goes on, oblivious to my rising panic, ‘it’s just going to take some time for me to relax and know that she’ll never find me.’

A breath catches in my throat as I wonder if she already has.

3

As much as I hate to admit it, I barely hear anything my next few clients say, so distracted am I by the sickening realization that someone might have been in my office.

As soon as I’m alone, I hastily lock the door and set about trying to quieten the thumping in my chest that’s reverberating in my ears. I go through the L–R drawer again in a desperate search for Jacob’s file. It has to be here somewhere.

I check every other drawer, allowing for the possibility that I’d somehow put it back in the wrong place. But it’s not been haphazardly thrown amongst the A–Ks or the S–Zs, which, for someone who has a set place for everything, is somewhat of a relief. I can’t believe I’d rather the file have been taken than have my normally meticulous business practices questioned.

I try to convince myself that I might have taken his folder up to the house, though even as I’m walking up the path I know how unlikely that is, especially with what’s been going on. I wouldn’t have risked Leon seeing it, even in all its innocence, as whether I want to admit it or not, I have gone out of my way to avoid talking about any of my clients in the past week, for fear of the conversation turning to the man who needed somewhere to stay. Would I confess that the same man was currently ensconced in our flat? That I’d valued Jacob’s safety more than Leon’s wishes?