She never worries about him straying or getting lost. The beach is dog friendly and people look out for each other’s animals. And then she sees him, fifty yards away, where the sand meets a cluster of rocks at the end of the beach. They don’t usually go that far. It’s always damp and empty and often in shade from the cliffs above. A flock of turnstones is pecking nervously at the sand. Behind them Stretch is sniffing at something on the high-tide line, a large bundle of seaweed, partially hidden. He starts to bark.

‘There he is,’ Bex says. ‘What’s he found?’

Kate doesn’t reply. Instead, she starts to walk over to Stretch, a heavy feeling in her stomach as she quickens her pace. Stretch doesn’t normally bark like this.

‘What is it, Kate?’ Bex calls behind her, fear growing in her voice. ‘What’s he barking at?’

She keeps walking, transfixed by the sight of what Stretch has found.

‘Come away from there, weenie toes,’ she says quietly, slowing to a standstill when she’s ten feet away. ‘There’s a good boy.’

She thinks she’s going to be sick.

‘Oh my God,’ Bex says, now beside her, hand over her mouth.

‘We’d better call the police,’ Kate manages to say.

44

Jake

Jake is back at Bex’s computer screen again. He’s left it long enough, can’t afford to miss the chance to message Kirby. Kirby will be wondering where Kate’s got to.

He logs into Kate’s account, moving fast. A quick check of the chat window reveals that Rob is offline. He opens up the message thread with Kirby, reminding himself that he’s posting as Kate.

Sorry, had to pop out. Anything really. Maybe a story from way back, when you were at school together? Travelling? Thailand?

Has he gone too quickly with the reference to Thailand? Maybe he should have started with something more general, but there’s no saying how long he’s got on here before Rob appears. Or even Bex. He glances at the list of Kate’s friends on the right of the screen, scrolling up and down and up again, watching for a green ‘online’ icon to appear next to Rob’s name.

Don’t go near what happened to Rob in Thailand.

He stares at the screen, blood draining from his face. There’s no going back now. He needs to remember exactly what Bex told him, how reticent Rob had been.

Why not? He briefly mentioned it to me once. How he met his double on a beach. He seemed upset. I want to help him – get him to talk more about it.

Kirby replies immediately.

Can I call you?

Jake starts to panic. Does Kirby have Kate’s mobile number?

Reception terrible here in Cornwall. Messaging best.

Again Jake wonders if he’s blown it. Kirby takes a long time – too long – to reply.