Silence, but Silas knows someone’s there, with something to tell him. He’s had calls like this before, can hear the breathing. Informants, witnesses, whistleblowers. You just have to wait until they’re ready. He gestures at Jake, who has stopped up ahead.

‘Can I help?’ Silas asks, turning away.

More breathing, this time familiar. Silas’s stomach tightens. He looks up at the hills beyond the canal. And then he hears his voice.

‘Dad?’

58

Kate

Rob isn’t there when Kate arrives at Paddington. He rang, full of apologies, shortly after her train left the village. More meetings, not enough time. If she’d been on the earlier train, he could have met her, but now that she’s more than an hour late, it’s knocked things back and… She told him not to worry. She didn’t say how relieved she was.

He’s sent a car with a driver though and wants her to make herself at home in his flat in Shoreditch until he gets back. She’s intrigued finally to see the place for herself. They’ve often talked about her coming to stay in London, but she’s never felt strong enough for city life. Not until today.

She heads across the concourse at Paddington and finds the car waiting for her on Praed Street. London seems full of people with not enough time, the press of urban life etched on sunless faces. The stress in the air is almost palpable, like a taste at the back of the mouth. Or perhaps it’s just the pollution. She also feels alive here, the heady mix of cultures far removed from her safe little routine in Cornwall. At least it used to be safe, until someone tried to kill her and a dead body washed up on the beach below their house. That all seems so surreal now, a different world.

Her driver – stocky, faint eastern European accent, gimlet eyes – instantly makes her think of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Except that Putin doesn’t have a scar on the side of his shaven head. He takes her bag and opens the car’s rear door. She doesn’t feel comfortable being looked after like this, but his eyes glint as she moves to get in. And then she remembers the orange dress. She looks around and spots a bin across the street.

‘One sec,’ she says to Putin.