He and Kate used to watch a lot of movies on the boat together, particularly in the early days, on long winter nights. But he watched that one on his own. She wasn’t into horror.

‘God, years ago, I think,’ Bex says. ‘Donald Sutherland screaming at the end?’

‘That’s the seventies remake. It’s the original one I was thinking about. Kevin McCarthy as the doctor who sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras syndrome. In fact it turns out they’re “pod people” – extraterrestrial doubles with no emotion.’

‘What’s Capgras syndrome?’

‘That’s what made me think of the film. It’s a very real delusion, apparently. Nothing sci-fi about it at all. I read about it after watching the film. You’re convinced that the person closest to you – your partner, say, or family member – has been replaced by a double.’

Silence. And then Bex speaks, her voice quiet. ‘Do you think that’s what’s going on with Kate?’

‘Could be – I’m no expert. But it sounds a lot more likely than Rob being replaced by a French-speaking doppelgänger.’

32

Kate

Kate scans the beach with the pair of binoculars borrowed from the National Coastwatch lookout hut behind her, aware that her hands are trembling. The hut sits on the end of a rocky promontory, with good views of the beaches back towards the village and the other way towards Nare Head. She often drops by for a chat here on her walks. A Union Jack flutters above it whenever someone’s on duty.

‘This is exactly what I came down to Cornwall to leave behind,’ she says, moving her focus systematically from one person to the next: sunbathers, dads playing French cricket with their children, friends throwing a Frisbee in the surf. Above them, by the footpath, a long lunch queue snakes its way towards the Secret Shack, her favourite café. Best seafood chowder in Cornwall.

She still hasn’t got over the shock of the photo of the barman that Silas and Strover showed her. Afterwards, they told her they thought he’d spiked her drink at the pub too. She’s sure it’s the same man that she saw at the café before she went for a swim. When there’s a match, it’s just obvious. A spot. He’s also in the background of her photo of Rob, which means that he’s been watching her for a while – and that it wasn’t cramp that nearly caused her to drown.

‘I can’t promise I’ll recognise him,’ she adds.

Hart is aware that the accident left her without her old powers of recognition. What he doesn’t know is that Dr Varma now thinks her ability to remember faces is returning. She just wishes her ability to paint them would come back too.

‘Take your time,’ Strover says behind her.