Inside his office, Andy Bishop was reliving his encounter with the yummy mummy he’d bumped into in the upstairs kitchenette. I wonder why she needs a lawyer? he thought to himself as he took a sip on his cup of tea, before realising the office was unbearably hot. He glanced over at the window that overlooked the car park. It was open, but he was sure he could open it further.

Andy went across to the window and yanked it up a few more inches. He half noticed an old woman sitting outside in a wheelchair with what looked like her caregiver. He returned to his desk but stopped as he realised the person in the wheelchair looked a lot like the Judith woman who’d visited him earlier on, asking questions about Ezra. Andy strode back to the window and stuck his head out, but the woman in the wheelchair had vanished. Hmm, he thought to himself, before losing interest in the whole question and returning to his desk.

As for Judith and Suzie, they’d panicked the moment Andy had first appeared at the window, and Suzie had pushed Judith at speed towards the first house that was next to the car park. Judith had kicked the little picket gate open with her feet as Suzie had shoved her in, and both women were ducking down behind a pink hydrangea at the precise moment Andy had looked out of his back window for a second time.

‘Do you think he saw us?’ Judith asked.

‘Shh!’ Suzie said, her heart hammering against her chest.

The sound of a piercing alarm suddenly filled the air. Finally!

‘Okay, you’re on,’ Judith said, straightening up as Suzie wheeled her back towards the window that Andy had so recently vacated. As they approached, the sill looked even higher above their heads than it had done before. How on earth was Suzy going to climb up and into Andy’s office?

Inside, Becks sat in the reception area, her hands on her lap in quiet satisfaction as the fire alarm screamed. Half a dozen solicitors and clients emerged from various doors and drifted down the stairs from the floor above.

‘Is this a drill?’ one of them asked.

‘I don’t think so,’ the receptionist replied.

‘Okay. Everyone to the assembly point. Round the back.’

Becks stood up, all smug satisfaction gone.

‘Round the back?’ she asked.

‘When we evacuate the building, the assembly point is the little car park behind the building.’

‘Not out the front?’ she asked in quiet desperation.

‘No. We can’t go clogging up the High Street, so let’s get to the back, everyone,’ the man called out.