‘That’s why I wanted to come forward after keeping silent for so long,’ he said. ‘So many people suffer with anxiety and panic in secret. I was too ashamed of what was happening to me to tell anyone, so I struggled alone, and things just got worse and worse. It’s important to talk about mental health issues, so that people can understand that they’re not alone, that they’re not irrevocably broken. That there is hope. But like Pip, I couldn’t do it on my own. I needed a helping hand.’

‘Are you currently receiving treatment for your anxiety?’

Brody nodded. ‘For more than six months now.’

‘And have you conquered it?’

‘Getting there,’ Brody replied, a smile lifting his features. Anna gripped onto the arm of the sofa for support. She’d never seen him smile before. It was so… so…

And then he was gone. The reporter was rounding up and there were shots of the pair of presenters back in the studio. Anna stood up and moved towards the television, although she wasn’t quite sure why.

‘Anna?’

Anna almost jumped out of her skin at the muffled voice that seemed to be coming from somewhere near her midriff. She looked down and saw she was clutching her phone. Oh, yes. Gabi.

‘Are you there?’ Gabi asked, sounding shrill. ‘Did you see?’

‘Yes.’ She felt like she was in a trance.

‘He was talking about you, Anna.’

Anna nodded dumbly. ‘I know.’

‘So…’ Gabi took a breath, then carried on, sounding hesitant. ‘The big question is – are you going to call him?’

Chapter Sixty

IT WAS CLOSE to eight a.m. when Anna turned into a narrow lane that climbed steeply out of the valley up a wild and windswept hill. She’d driven through the night and dawn was just about to break. Thank goodness for all the Google mapping she’d done after she’d found out who Brody really was. She was pretty sure she was in the right spot. She’d driven through Hexworthy and had just passed the little stone bridge that she thought was the one Brody described taking Lewis over most days.

Halfway up the winding hilly lane, she spotted a cottage and her pulse began to hammer as she slowed down and pulled her car into a large, cobbled yard. When she turned off the engine, the silence of the countryside around her was thick and complete.

Anna got out of the car and walked up to the cottage. She was so nervous she thought she might faint. It was an inconvenient time of day to be knocking on somebody’s door, she knew, but she hadn’t been able to make herself go to bed and wait until the morning before she’d set off.

She used the large brass knocker on the door to rap a few times and waited, but there was no dull thud of feet on stairs inside, no muffled rustling as someone made their way to the door. She looked up. One of the bedroom windows was open. He might be in. He could have seen her through the window, and maybe he just didn’t want to answer.