‘Funny place to leave a stolen car,’ Strover says, looking up the location on a map on her phone. ‘Remote.’

Silas is thinking the same thing. An abandoned car near coastal cliffs usually means only one thing: suicide. It doesn’t make any sense. An hour earlier, this man had tried to run down Kate. The day before, he’d nearly drowned her.

‘Ask that friend of yours in digital forensics to run a check on Rob,’ he says. ‘See if she can find a facial match.’

Strover turns to him in surprise. ‘Really?’

‘Why not?’ he says defensively. Strover’s friend is good, a digital investigator who’s helped them on previous cases.

‘Isn’t that crossing a line too?’ she asks.

Possibly, but they came barging into Kate’s new life today, reminding her of a past that she clearly wants to forget. Strover’s right. It’s the least they can do for an old colleague.

‘And check the plates she gave you,’ he says, ignoring her surprise. ‘See if he’s been giving her the runaround.’

42

Jake

Kirby replies almost immediately to Jake’s Facebook message. He works in tech too, somewhere in Silicon Valley. No doubt another one of those beanbags-for-chairs start-ups where being on social media 24/7 is all part of the job.

Kate! I’ve heard so much about you. And so far only wonderful things ☺ Great idea. What sort of anecdotes are you after? So many! And when’s the party-party?!

Jake sits back. He can’t introduce doppelgängers too quickly into the conversation, but he also doesn’t want to be on Facebook for long, given he’s using Kate’s account. He’s already been logged in for half an hour and it’s beginning to feel increasingly disloyal. He’s about to start typing a reply when a new message window pings open on the screen.

He freezes. It’s from Rob.

Hey?! Thought you’d given FB up for the summer???? Ring me? Been trying to call you back. What happened with FaceTime? Need to get comms sorted down there. Can’t get through on landline either. You OK? xx

Should he just ignore it? If he replies, he could blow everything. The chances of making a mistake are too high. For whatever reason, it seems like Kate doesn’t want to talk to Rob right now.

He logs out without replying to Rob. Kirby will have to wait.

43

Kate

Kate’s completely forgotten that there’s a beach clean this evening. Not that they need one around here. They all do their bit – runners, dog walkers, even the tourists, who are pretty good at clearing up after themselves. But Kate wants to go along tonight, to take her mind off all that’s happened this weekend.

‘You coming?’ she asks Bex, who is sitting with Stretch on the sofa.