‘He went to great lengths to hide it from her,’ I say, feeling a weight bearing down on my shoulders, making me feel like I’m being restrained. ‘He quite literally went out of his way to get here, so that she couldn’t follow him.’

‘Do you know why she might have been following him?’ Robson asks, her colleague seemingly on mute. That’s probably the best place for him.

‘Because she needed to know where he was,’ I say. ‘She needed to be in control and when she didn’t feel as if she was, she’d go to extreme lengths to get him back under her command.’

‘Did she ever threaten him?’ asks Robson.

‘Yes,’ I say. ‘She’d often tell him that if he ever left her, she would hunt him down and kill him.’

‘So when was the last time you saw Mr Talbot?’ asks Harris. ‘When was his last appointment?’

I flinch, knowing that they’re not one and the same thing. I take a moment to decide which version I should give them, knowing that the further down this rabbit hole I take myself, the harder it will be to get back out.

‘His last appointment was on Monday,’ I say.

‘So, three days ago?’ he asks unnecessarily.

I count the days myself; anything to give me more time to work out what the hell is going on here.

‘Yes,’ I say.

‘And how did he seem to you? Any different to how he normally is? Did he talk about how he was feeling?’

‘If you’re asking me whether it’s possible he might have harmed himself, then no, I don’t think so. He was in a good place; happy to be in the flat and enjoying his new job.’ My brain is going at a hundred miles an hour, desperately trying to filter the information that will help find Jacob, yet keep myself from being in any way implicated in his disappearance.

‘Though he did call me later that evening,’ I add, in an effort to emphasize the gravitas.

Robson’s eyebrows shoot up. ‘To say . . .?’

My legs are twitching, as if they can feel the hot water I’m immersing myself in, as it slowly and painfully rises. I wonder if I shouldn’t just put myself out of my misery and tell them everything, but I can picture Leon’s face as he finds out that I met Jacob in a hotel and lied about it. And that I went to the flat last night, the flat that he thinks is empty.

‘To say that his wife had found out where he was,’ I say, naively believing that I’ve found some safe ground. This will give them the evidence they need to pursue her, because sitting here questioning me is wasting valuable time.

‘And you haven’t seen or heard from him since?’ she asks.