“She won’t. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

We pull on our trainers and leave the house. If we were at mine, I’d have had to tell Mum and Dad where we were going—they’d want to know. But things are different at Alice’s house. Alice’s dad is dismantling a car engine in the back garden and doesn’t seem the slightest bit bothered what we do, and her mum is in bed again. Last week she was up and about and chatting to the neighbor. Last week was a good week. That’s what Alice told me earlier, in that matter-of-fact way she has when she talks about her mum’s illness. Last week was a good week and this week isn’t. I hope I never suffer from depression.

We walk to the high street. It doesn’t take long from Riley Road. Catherine must be there by now.

“I don’t see how this is going to work,” I say. “If we look through the window, she’ll see us, won’t she?”

“God, Lizzie, you’re such a worrier. We’re not going to look through the window. We’re going to watch from somewhere we can see the entrance and wait till they come out. Then we’ll follow them.”

“But they might be in there ages.”

Alice gives one of her long sighs. “You’d make a terrible detective. You have to be patient on a stakeout.”

She pulls out a big packet of American Hard Gums that she’s somehow managed to stuff into the pocket of her jeans. She must have swiped it from the goody cupboard on her way out—the one that’s always stuffed full of sweets and chocolate biscuits and packets of crisps. The sorts of things my mum and dad never buy.

We sit on the wide stone steps outside the town hall, the packet of Hard Gums between us. We watch. We wait. We chew.

Every time someone goes in or comes out of Nando’s, we sit up a little straighter. The sun is warm on our bare legs—Alice’s are browner than mine, which is annoying, but then she has a different skin tone to me, more olive-colored, so she tans easily. With my pale freckled skin, I have to be careful I don’t burn. I tried one of those self-tanning lotions once. Big mistake. I looked orange and streaky for weeks.

The gums taste good and for a while it’s fun. But it soon gets boring, having to look in one direction the whole time, and I’ve eaten too many gums and my teeth feel all sticky. I’m thirsty, too.

All of a sudden, Alice grabs me by the arm. “There they are! Look! They’re heading for the bridge. Let’s go!”