Kate leans forward and lets her hug her, staying like that for a minute or two until the sobs subside.

‘I knew something was wrong,’ she says. ‘He hasn’t rung me for months, I promise. That’s why I wanted to pick up.’

‘What was it?’ Bex asks. ‘What’s happened?’

‘His boat, the one we lived on, it’s been gutted by a fire. Tonight. Totally destroyed. He thinks deliberately.’

‘Oh my God. Is he OK?’

‘He’s safe. Sounded pretty shaken up. Who would do that, Bex? Burn a beautiful old boat deliberately? And knowing someone was on board?’

‘I don’t know.’ Bex looks for her phone and turns it on. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she says as her phone comes to life and starts to ping with messages. ‘Loads of people in the village have been texting me about it. I shouldn’t have switched my phone off.’

‘What are they saying?’ Kate asks, trying to picture the scene on the canal. It was a good community, tight-knit.

‘Same as you. Everyone thinks it was arson.’ Bex scrolls through a few more messages. ‘They found a metal jerrycan up at the lock,’ she says, reading. ‘The fire brigade took fifteen minutes to get down there, by which time the boat was too far gone. I’m so sorry.’

‘No one hurt, though?’ Kate asks.

‘No.’ Bex pauses. ‘Shit. And I was so off with him today.’

‘Who?’

‘Jake. I saw him at the station. When I was going up to London to spy on your Rob. Poor bloke.’

‘You never said.’

Bex raises her eyebrows at Kate. ‘I didn’t think I needed to.’

‘Where’s he going to live?’ Kate asks.

‘The pub maybe. They’ll put him up for a few days. They’re good like that. And he’s given them enough business over the years. If not, he can always stay at mine.’

‘Yours?’

Bex nods.

Kate’s shocked by the offer. Bex has never shown any inclination to be kind to Jake, even before they split up.

‘Why not? It’s just sitting empty.’

‘Thanks, Bex.’

They sit in awkward silence.

‘What is it, Katie my love?’ she asks quietly. Bex knows her too well, senses that she’s holding something back.

‘Rob thinks that my coffee might have been spiked today, before I went for a swim.’

‘Spiked? Bloody hell, Kate. Who by?’

She tells Bex about the court case, her role in it, the assurances she was given at the time that she wouldn’t be in any personal danger. Jake was convinced at the beginning that her car crash hadn’t been an accident, but Kate was just surprised it hadn’t happened before. She’d started to drink and drive, something that she’d never done before. She was a total wreck, wrung out from the work she was doing, her empty life with Jake.