Jake nods, blinking hard. It looks like it’s all suddenly caught up with him.

‘Have you told Kate about the fire?’ Silas asks.

Jake nods again.

‘How did she take it?’ It’s very unlikely she’s involved, but they’ll still have to eliminate her from their inquiries.

‘Pleased that I’m safe.’

‘Is she still with her new man?’ Silas shouldn’t be asking. It’s none of his business.

‘He’s had to go back to London. Usually comes down for the weekend.’

Jake’s still in love with Kate, poor sod. At least it was mutual when Silas and Mel, his ex, split up. No arguments, just a heavy-hearted acceptance that they no longer had anything in common.

‘Leave it to us from now on, eh?’ Silas says, putting a hand on Jake’s shoulder. ‘And try to get some sleep.’

21

Kate

Kate can’t sleep, not after talking to Jake on the phone. She wants to call him back, let him unload a bit more about what’s happened, but she knows he’s no longer her problem. He’s safe and there her concern should end. She’s just not sure that Bruce and Sue, the kind couple who are putting him up for the night, will want to listen until dawn. Jake never keeps things in: he likes to discuss a problem until it has been examined from every angle. It’s why she’s not given him the chance to give his side of what she saw on the CCTV that night. She doesn’t want them to talk about it until they reach the point where his infidelity somehow becomes forgivable or acceptable.

Bex went to bed after they chatted some more on the terrace and Kate is now in the open-plan sitting room, tucked up on the sofa, about to surf through late-night TV channels on the vast home-cinema screen. When she asked Rob if such a big TV was necessary, he said he needed it for his work. He hasn’t watched anything on it yet, apart from the tennis.

She turns on the TV and gawps. A naked couple are having sex on a benchpress in a gym, the woman lying on her back, head hanging awkwardly off the end of the bench as she sucks off the man, who is standing. Instinctively she switches channels, shocked by the explicitness of what she’s just seen, and then switches back to watch again, turning her head ninety degrees to see the poor woman’s face. There’s nothing remotely arousing about the couple, who seem more focused on holding their positions than giving each other pleasure. What concerns her is why the TV has been left tuned to a porn channel. Did Rob come in here last night while she was asleep? Wasn’t he satisfied after they’d had sex?