I thought of the money Tom had put into my bank. “I can pay the rent. That’s not a problem.”

“Very well,” she said coolly. “You’ll have to pay six months’ rent in advance and a deposit against damages.”

“How much do you think I’ll have to pay per month?”

She shrugged. “Most of the one-beds go for around six or seven hundred a month. Before bills, of course.”

Frantically I made calculations in my head. “I can put six months’ rent down now, but I want a monthly contract. I don’t want to pay rent if I’ve got somewhere else to live.”

“There’s no point in you trying to write your own rules. The courts have no power to make a tenant leave until six months are up, so you won’t find a landlord who’ll give you a contract for less than that.” Gill must have seen the wave of panic that flooded me then, because she softened and spoke more kindly. “Look, if you sell your house and want to move out of the flat early, I’ll put in a good word for you. You’d lose your deposit, but they’d probably let you go.”

•   •   •

By the time we reached the fifth flat I was ready to take anything. Gill parked her car just off the main road. I got out and looked around. There was a row of a dozen or so shops and the area was tidy and well kept.

“The flat’s up above the florist’s shop on the corner,” said Gill. “I’ve placed people there before and everything’s been fine.”

“Is it safe around here?”

“As safe as anywhere,” she said. “In the daytime all these shops are open, of course, but it’s a quiet enough place at night. It’s not the sort of place where you’ll have trouble with people hanging around.”

“Are there other flats in the building?”

“No, these shops have just one flat above each of them.” The front door was on the side road, around the corner from the shop entrance, and Gill pulled out a key ring and opened the door. Inside there was a small hallway and a set of stairs leading up to the flat. An unadorned lightbulb hung from the ceiling and she flicked the switch before we both went upstairs. In the dim light the stairs looked gloomy and the thick carpet was covered in a fine layer of dust.