Maria was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since her insubstantial breakfast of coffee and toast. And with the engine off she couldn’t switch on the heater. Her lightly fleshed frame felt chilled to the bone. That old feeling. The cold made her scared. She looked at her watch: three-fifteen. Already the sky was dark with more than the clouds. If it got any darker she would have significant trouble locating Viktor’s car. She remembered her shock at finding Viktor’s car behind her at the traffic lights. What if it hadn’t been a coincidence? What if he had been onto her from the start? All kinds of irrational fears began to well up inside her. Suddenly an idea came to her and she spun around suddenly to make sure that Viktor’s car wasn’t there, sitting behind her in over-styled American menace. It wasn’t. She turned to face front again. Pull yourself together, she told herself. For God’s sake get a grip.

It was then that she saw the improbably long profile of Viktor’s Chrysler glide past the road end. She had been right: it had been a collection and he was heading back. Maria switched on the car lights, started the engine, and headed after him.

4.

Thirteen … fourteen … fifteen …

Andrea counted each one silently and focused on her breathing, each inhalation hissed through tight-drawn lips.

Sixteen … seventeen …

She had added two kilos to the bench press. If she did twenty reps, three sets, that would mean that by the end of her routine she would have lifted an extra one hundred and twenty kilos.

Eighteen … nineteen …

She felt the muscles around her jaw set hard with every push. No need for a facelift if you did this kind of thing. It was called radiated stress. The whole idea was that with each exercise you isolated one part of your body, one set of muscles, to maximise the benefit to that area. But the muscle and sinew of neck and jaw always strained under the effort. The first sign of someone beginning a weight work regime wasn’t on their bodies, it was in their face.

Twenty.

Andrea eased the bench press slowly back to its resting position. It was the great thing about multi-gym equipment: you didn’t need a spotter to buddy you through your routine. But Andrea knew that when it came to building bulk and definition, it was the free weight that worked best: the system used since the gymnasia of the Greeks and Romans. But using this high-tech equipment freed her from the need to engage with anyone else in the gym.

She took a slug of water from her bottle, sprayed the bench seat and back with anti-bacterial spray and wiped everything down. The etiquette of the gym. She liked coming at this time of night. It was always quiet. Few people, no noise, no chat. Even the usual dance-track muzak was switched off.