I saw a flicker of movement behind him and blinked. I couldn’t take in what I was seeing.

It was Kerry. She was clutching a fire extinguisher, which she had wrenched off the other wall.

As I watched, open-mouthed and still gasping for breath, she gave Seth Gordon another direct thwack on the back between the shoulder blades with the extinguisher and he flopped forwards, spreadeagled before us like an exhausted starfish.

My mouth flopped open wider, unable to compute what I was seeing. “Kerry? What the hell…?”

She dumped the extinguisher down on the floor. “Shit, Leonie! Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”

I stumbled over Seth Gordon’s sprawled and groaning form and Kerry bundled me into her arms. She smelled of camomile shampoo. I struggled to compose myself. “He was going to throw me down the stairs,” I gulped into her shoulder, letting out panicked sobs. “He was going to kill me.”

“But he didn’t,” rumbled a male voice.

I looked up through a mist of panic to see Flynn Talbot senior striding towards us both.

“Mr Talbot? What on earth are you doing here?” I wriggled myself out of Kerry’s concerned arms, gawping at them both.

“Rick Askew warned me that Seth Gordon was just about capable of anything,” said Kerry. “Then when I spoke to Simone Wales, I got really scared. I think Askew was terrified about getting implicated in anything violent, to add to his list of other misdemeanours.”

“So, you came along to check I was ok?” I asked, glaring down at the outstretched Seth Gordon at our feet.

“Yes. When Rick Askew and Simone Wales said how ruthless Gordon was, I got worried and wasn’t prepared to take any chances.”

“Well, thank goodness you did,” I mumbled, trying to steady my breath. I rubbed at my aching waist, trying not to think of what could have happened.

My attention focused on Flynn senior again. “But what are you doing here, Mr Talbot? I don’t understand.” Under my coat, my bruised upper arms gave a dull, painful throb of protest.

Flynn senior shot Kerry a charged look. “I rang your magazine office.” He glowered down at Seth Gordon “I asked to speak to you because I was concerned too. I saw you and my grandson exchanging words when we visited Lily.”

“Mr Talbot spoke to me instead,” explained Kerry in an excited, eager rush. “When he said who he was, I knew I had to tell him the truth; that it wasn’t you who revealed to Athena about him being Chandler.” She let out a long, embarrassed breath. “It was me. All me.”

My stunned expression flicked to Kerry and then to Flynn senior.

“Mr Talbot said he wanted to speak to you not only to apologise but to talk about his grandson, and that was when I told him you were out on a story but that I was getting worried about you.”