I feel as if I’m being slowly injected with a noxious substance, numbly waiting for the effects to take hold. If I admit to seeing Jacob in the hotel, I’ll be incriminating myself, not just to the police but to Leon as well. But if I don’t come clean, I might hamper their efforts to find him.

‘Mrs Chandler?’ prompts Robson. ‘So you haven’t seen him since?’

I look her straight in the eyes. ‘No,’ I say, choosing my poison.

I only hope I don’t choke on it.

12

I’m half a bottle of wine down by the time I hear Leon’s key in the lock this evening. I’d thankfully been ensconced back in my office by the time he left for work this morning. But now I regret not telling him about my police visit then, because even with the wine softening the sharp edges, this is going to be difficult.

What am I supposed to say to him? Do I tell him exactly what I told the police, selfishly disregarding the role I played in the lead-up to Jacob’s disappearance? Or do I tell him the truth? Because despite myself, I can’t help but feel I’m going to need him on side.

As I peer around the kitchen door and see who’s walking down the hall, I fear the decision’s already been made for me.

‘Look who I found loitering around,’ says Leon, with a big smile on his face.

‘Shelley!’ I exclaim.

‘Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it loitering,’ she says, laughing. ‘It was more of a slow saunter past in the hope that you’d offer me a coffee.’

‘We can do better than that,’ says Leon, eyeing up the half-empty bottle of wine on the kitchen counter.

I stand there, poleaxed, as Shelley’s Irish terrier jumps up at me, her demands for attention ignored.

‘Sorry,’ says Shelley. ‘You look like this is the last thing you need.’

‘No,’ I mumble. ‘It’s fine. It’s lovely to see you. What are you doing over this way?’

‘Well, I just thought we’d have a nose at the preparations for Saturday,’ she says. ‘It’s incredible to see the place transformed into a venue. The stage, the lighting – even the portaloos . . . it’s like a mini-Glastonbury. You’ve done a great job, Leon.’

‘Well, let’s see how great it is when two thousand people need the toilet,’ he says, laughing.

‘I was also hoping to have a look at the old stables,’ she says. ‘But it’s all fenced off.’

‘We had to make it out of bounds,’ says Leon. ‘Just in case a member of the public wandered over there from the concert.’

‘Right,’ says Shelley, nodding. ‘Though they’d have to be going out of their way.’