After she’d finished, she was thoroughly washing her hands when a woman wearing a tight cream skirt suit tottered into the bathroom with her ear clamped to her phone. Her stiletto heels left polka-dot circles on the damp floor. She finished her call and looked pointedly ahead, pretending she hadn’t seen Liv. Examining her lipstick in the mirror, she pouted her mouth as if air-kissing. When she rooted around in her handbag for her powder compact, a biscuit wrapper drifted to the floor. She glanced down at it, and so did Liv. The woman smoothed a pad around her face and zipped her bag shut. She stepped over her litter and headed out of the bathroom.

Liv felt anger ripple through her. She snatched up the foil and scrunched it in her fist. “Excuse me,” she called out.

The woman was halfway through the door. Her face was quizzical as she looked back.

Liv was about to say, You dropped this, but then she looked at the woman’s smart suit and down at her own uniform. Doubt about her actions clouded over her. “Um, have a good day,” she muttered instead, tossing the wrapper into her cleaning cart.

When she arrived at the Cardinal residence, Liv told Hannah she had to leave promptly at noon.

“Oh, sweetie.” Hannah’s puppy-dog eyes came into play. “I need you to go to the post office and shops. Tarkers has sold his telescope and mineral collection on eBay and it needs mailing out. I’ve run out of vitamin supplements and teeth whitener.”

Liv’s stomach skipped when she thought about Essie’s yellow notepad waiting for her. “I really need to get to my next job,” she said. “I could go to the post office, and give cleaning the dining room a miss...?”

Hannah glanced at the multicolored splats and handprints that marked the floor like prehistoric cave paintings. She let out the deepest sigh. “Walt and I are supremely busy...”

Liv felt guilt rumble inside her. She ran to the post office with cardboard boxes tucked under her chin, bought bottles of biotin and B12, and wiped paint off the floors at double speed.

Afterward, she sprinted to Essie’s apartment and stood panting while she waited for the lift to arrive. As it shot up to the top floor, she recalled a snippet of The River After Midnight.

The battered truck dropped Georgia off in the dark of night, in the middle of nowhere. Lights in the closest town twinkled a long way in the distance. Between her and them lay only darkness and the silhouette of trees. Georgia knew she’d have to knock on many doors to find what she was looking for. Life would be a challenge for some time. Even though her stomach churned and her throat was tight, she refused to show any fear. She picked up her suitcase and started walking.