Gigi and I stood together, hand in hand, staring up at the magnificent skeleton of a diplodocus. ‘Isn’t this amazing, Gigi? We’re seeing an actual dinosaur.’ I’d always been fascinated by these enormous magnificent animals that had roamed the Earth long before our existence. And now I got to share the wonder of them with my daughter.

‘Juss bones,’ said Gigi as she continued to lick her lollipop. ‘Gimme phone.’

The magic of parenthood.

I continued to drag her round each display. I felt marginally better for the fact I hadn’t actually specially taken time off for this non-magical bonding experience.

Yvonne eventually blew a little whistle and waved her yellow flag. ‘Time to go, everyone! We will now depart for the school, where we can do some nice drawings of our favourite dinosaurs.’

Frederick came up alongside me and spoke low into my ear. ‘You have to meet Y at five p.m. Exit four of the Marble Arch pedestrian subway.’ I felt his breath on my cheek. ‘Wait for him at the bottom of the ramp.’ He showed me Y’s photo on his phone. He had thin eyebrows and a large mole on his right cheek.

I nodded.

‘That was fun, wasn’t it, Gigi? Mummy has to go back to work now. But you’re going back to school to do some drawings and Ganma will pick you up from there. OK?’ Ganma was Gigi’s name for my mother-in-law; her first attempt at Grandma was to us so sweet we had kept it going. I held my breath as Gigi computed what I was saying. There was always the fear she would let rip with a round of quickfire words that stung: ‘Why, Mama? Why you leave me? Don’t go, Mama. I just want you. Only you.’

It had been so much easier when they couldn’t talk. When they were just a bundle you could give a kiss and a wave to and skip out the door to your other life. Now there was the fear there would be tears and recriminations. Guilt dragging you down. Making you feel a terrible mother for daring to leave them.

But not today. Thankfully she just nodded. ‘OK, Mama, bye bye.’ And walked off holding Florence’s hand.

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

THE MARBLE ARCH UNDERPASS was surprisingly quiet for rush hour.

‘Looking good, beautiful.’

A man stood in the middle of the underpass staring at me. He was skinny with pockmarked skin, peroxided hair and wearing a long dark coat. I dismissed him as a random sleaze.

‘Come on, give me a smile.’

I gave him the finger over my shoulder as I carried on walking.

‘I’ll be seeing you, Alexis Tyler.’

I stopped, spun around and rammed him up against the wall, my right hand clutching his throat.

‘Who are you? Who sent you? How do you know my name?’

He shakily pointed down to my jacket lapel.