Quickly I trawled through Maren’s older messages until I located a message from Verity Porter. I quickly scanned the glowing reference she had sent before blocking her email as well. In all likelihood, both Verity and Sophie had more than one email account. Perhaps Sophie would follow up with a second email to check whether Maren had received her email. Damn. Quickly I unblocked her again, typed out a hasty reply from Maren’s account (‘Dear Sophie, I’m afraid the position has been filled, but thank you for thinking of us. Best wishes, Maren’) then deleted the message from the Sent folder and re-blocked Sophie’s.

Even then, I knew that this was no prevention against being caught. In fact, by replying to Sophie I had possibly made things worse …

Lexi.

I looked up, startled by a whispering that sounded distinctly like my real name. Two syllables whispered hoarsely by someone close by. All the hairs on my arms stood on end.

I stepped lightly to the doorframe and peeked out into the dark corridor. No sign of Gaia, or Maren. But then a movement in the kitchen caught my eye.

It was dark, but as my eyes adjusted I saw the outline of a figure by the sink. A woman. I saw immediately that it wasn’t Maren – she was shorter and had long dark hair in a kind of loose, wet ponytail. Did Tom have female builders working on the site? I didn’t recall seeing any and, in any case, she wasn’t exactly dressed for construction work – she was barefoot and wore a long grey dress, and even though I only flashed a look at her I saw that she was wet. Like, soaking wet, as if she’d been caught in the rain. But she wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t grabbing a tea towel to dry her hair – she was just standing there, her back to me, hands by her sides.

‘Hello?’ I called. No answer. ‘Can I help you?’

I took a few steps into the kitchen and flicked on the light. And then I jumped.

The woman was nowhere to be seen. Fear pinioned me to the spot. How had she managed to walk out of the door in just a few seconds? My heart was racing. I glanced at the door, then walked nervously towards it, checking the handle. Locked. I felt my breathing grow laboured with a mixture of confusion and fear. I had seen her, hadn’t I? She had stood right there, by the window, dripping wet. And there was water on the floor.

‘Sophie?’

I flung around to see Maren approaching, her face crumpled in confusion.

‘There was … a woman …’ I stammered.

‘A woman?’

I nodded like Tigger. ‘Yes. She was standing here.’

Maren glanced into the office. The light of the computer screen shone on her face and she turned back to me.