Who had hurt Emily so badly when she was seventeen? Why was she too scared to go back to her family now? From the little Luke had told her about his sister, he had painted a picture of someone strong and single-minded, yet the woman Clara had met was someone intensely vulnerable, and clearly traumatized. Something else occurred to her. Tom had been in London the day her flat was broken into, turning up out of the blue only a few hours later, looking as though he’d barely slept. Then there was the fact Emily had treasured photos of Luke and her parents, but not one of him – had visibly flinched at the mention of his name.

She sat up straighter, her heart accelerating as she looked at her watch. Ten minutes had passed since Tom’s phone call. She suddenly realized she didn’t want to be alone with him. She needed to get out of the flat.

When she arrived on the Holloway Road half an hour later she stood on the street looking up at Mac’s windows. Though she’d tried to call him on her way over he hadn’t picked up the phone. She rang the bell now and waited, desperate to talk to him about what had taken place at her flat, but the intercom remained silent. Where was he? He knew that she was meeting Emily today; had told her he’d be waiting for her to come back and tell him all about it. So what was going on? Stepping back from the door she looked up at his windows, before catching the eye of Mehmet, the owner of the kebab shop.

‘You all right there, my darling?’ he called.

She went in. ‘Have you seen him today?’ she asked, breathing through her mouth to avoid the stench of sweating meat.

‘No, my love, not since this morning.’

She nodded, fingering the keys Mac had given her when she’d first started staying with him. She’d never just let herself in before because she’d never needed to and it felt a bit intrusive to start doing so now.

‘Some bloke called round for him an hour or so ago though,’ Mehmet went on, turning down the radio from which Taylor Swift’s voice blared, ‘but I don’t know if he had any luck. I nipped out the back for a fag when he started knocking.’

Tom, she thought. Murmuring her thanks, she was about to leave when Mehmet added something that stopped her in her tracks. ‘He’s definitely in, though.’

She looked at him in surprise. ‘Mac? How do you know?’