Once inside her flat she hurried around hitting every switch until the rooms were bathed in light, then stood looking about herself. It was still in disarray since the break-in, and the place had a sad, abandoned air. Something that had been niggling her ever since she’d received the first message from Emily returned to her now. She got up and went to the living room, taking down a small wooden box tucked away out of sight on one of the bookshelves. Opening it she breathed a sigh of relief. Inside, untouched still, was the T.S. Eliot book Luke had shown her all those years before. Ever since they’d moved into this flat he’d kept it with a few other precious bits and pieces in the same place. It had not been touched, she was sure of it – the box was still covered in a thin layer of dust from where it’d sat untampered with for half a year. She put the box back on the shelf.

Wandering into the bedroom her hip knocked against the chest of drawers and something fluttered to the floor. Picking it up she saw that it was the valentine’s card Luke had given her a few months before, a line drawing of one of Picasso’s doves on the front. Inside was written, simply, Love you, Clara, always will.

She went to the wardrobe and pulled out his favourite T-shirt, a faded Stone Roses one he used to wear in bed. Holding it to her face she breathed in his scent. A rush of memories hit her; his face, his kiss, the way he said her name, the smell of his body first thing in the morning. An image of the van’s bloodstained seat flashed before her and she sank on to the bed, tears choking her. At this moment, more than ever before, she felt sure that he was dead, that she would never see him again.

Suddenly she was desperate to get out of there. It had been a mistake to come; his absence far more brutal here between these silent walls than it was at Mac’s. She realized it didn’t even feel like home, not any more: whoever had broken in had destroyed that sense of safety and sanctuary. Hurriedly she wiped her eyes and, snatching up an empty carrier bag, began to fill it with clothes. Leaving the flat, she closed the door behind her, using the light from her phone to make sure she’d double locked it.