Liv sank down heavily on the sofa. She knew Anthony wouldn’t have sent anyone here without telling her first. She was sure the lilac nail belonged to Chloe. An apple rolled out of her bag onto the carpet and she didn’t pick it up. Johnny reached down and tossed it to her. It landed in her lap.

Liv imagined Chloe standing behind Buddha in the lobby, watching as she and Johnny arrived, and then Liv leaving on her own at lunchtime. She pictured the journalist smiling smugly to herself and drumming her fingernails in the lift on her way up to the thirty-second floor. She had sweet-talked a teenager with a broken arm into letting her into Essie’s apartment.

The more Liv thought about it, the more she seethed. She felt her eyes might fire out sparks. When she grabbed the arm of the sofa and heaved herself back to her feet, the apple bounced onto the floor again.

“Mum.” Johnny huffed at her.

“Which rooms did she go into?” Liv said.

“All of them. She said she wouldn’t be long.” His eyes swept over her. “Is there anything wrong?”

Liv tried to keep an edge out of her voice even though she wanted to scream. “I just wasn’t expecting her, that’s all. If she calls again, don’t let her in. Essie might have some precious things lying around,” she added.

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s fine. If she has any questions, I need to be here to answer them.”

Liv walked around the apartment with her heart booming in her ears. She tried to see the place through Chloe’s eyes.

Liv’s old handbag sat in the corner of Essie’s bedroom, and her name was written on the dry-cleaning bags. Her jeans and T-shirt were folded up on the side of the bath. Her son was hanging out on the sofa and his paper planes littered the carpet. Any journalist worth their salt would have spotted all these things and more.

Essie’s laptop had a screensaver of floating books, and was also password protected, so there was no way Chloe could access it. Even so, the original handwritten manuscript lay on top of the writing table, and Liv’s typed up version sat next to it. It was covered in her handwriting. She ground her teeth as she rejoined Johnny.

“Did the woman go into Essie’s writing room?” she said lightly.

“Dunno. Why, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said, feeling like she could kill Chloe.

Liv sat down next to Johnny again and tried to eat her sandwich. The bread stuck in her throat and made her cough.

“I nearly forgot,” Johnny said. “She asked me to give you a message.”

Liv sucked in her breath. “What is it?”

“Um, why didn’t Essie show at the book festival? Or something like that. Does that make sense?”