Silas’s own record is not much better. Maybe two hands. ‘And he’s never disappeared before?’ he asks.

‘Never. Loves his job, his family. Not like him at all.’

49

Jake

It’s been an hour since Jake ended his online chat with Kirby and he is still struggling to process what Rob’s old colleague told him. He’s been down to check on the boat again, harvesting some wild garlic from the towpath on the way back, and he is now in Bex’s kitchen, rustling up something to eat. Cooking has always been his way of relieving stress.

He finds a wooden chopping board and starts to slice some shallots he found in a cupboard, thinking again about what Kirby said. He had to delete the message thread, which means he’s got nothing to read through again, no evidence that any of their chat actually happened. It all seems too unreal, the beach party in Thailand far away in time and place.

Should he ring Kate? Confess that he logged into her Facebook account and conducted a conversation with an old friend of her new man? He can’t. She’d murder him. On the other hand, she might welcome the information, given her current obsession with doubles.

His phone rings before he can decide whether to call her. It’s Kate. Fuck. She must know already about Facebook. Rob saw Kate online and presumably mentioned it to her. He lets it ring out. And then she rings again. She always used to do that, knew when he was ignoring her calls. If he doesn’t answer it now, he knows she’ll keep ringing until he does.

‘Kate?’ he says tentatively.

‘Have you been logging into my Facebook account?’ She’s angry, fuming, like she was the night of her accident.

‘No,’ Jake says, protesting. He should have switched off his phone. ‘What’s happened? Is everything OK?’

‘You’re lying.’

How come Kate and Bex always know?

‘OK, so I logged into your account by accident. I thought I was logging into mine.’

‘You’re still lying.’

And she’s still angry.

There’s silence as she waits for him to come clean.

‘Jake?’ she asks, her voice marginally less hostile.

‘I’m here.’

He closes his eyes, knowing there’s worse to come before the storm blows itself out. He picks up a handful of mushrooms and begins to slice them.

‘Why did you log into my account?’ she asks.

There’s no way out. ‘I didn’t read any of your private messages,’ he says.

‘Oh, that’s OK, then.’ She’s furious again. ‘What do you expect me to say, Jake? I know you hacked into my Facebook account, but that’s alright because you didn’t read any of my messages? Jesus, and you wonder why I wanted out.’