Standing in the glare of Mei Lin’s home security lights twenty-four hours later, half wondering if she was already being scrutinised, Esther took a moment to compose herself. The opulence of the house was breathtaking, and cast her back to all those first impressions of Dylan’s unannounced guest round the breakfast table on her birthday morning: the hint of entitlement in the girl’s demeanour, the slightly hard-to-take confidence, the cool assertion of her very grown-up vocation. However, it was the possibility that Mei Lin was travelling with Dylan that had arrived as she’d galloped down the stairs and out of the house to the garden centre, along with the thought that maybe the whole reckless adventure was being funded by a fat allowance. In which case it was parents she would be dealing with and not the girl, Esther realised, taking a deep breath before pressing the buzzer.

Another spotlight immediately came on, more like a torch in the face it was so blinding and near.

‘Hello?’ It was a man’s voice, gruff with the readiness to turn her away.

‘I am here about Mei Lin.’ Esther aimed for a tone of quiet command rather than desperation. ‘I’m the mother of a friend of hers, Dylan Shaw.’ There was no reply, only a pause, followed by a faint squeak as the gates started to swing apart.

Waiting for her in the open door at the top of the broad stone steps was a slim, heavy-haired Asian man, in his late forties, she guessed. He was wearing crisp, dark suit trousers, a close-fitting, blue and white, floral shirt, and expensive-looking, hybrid trainer-loafers. ‘I am Mei Lin’s father. How can I help, Mrs Shaw?’ He spoke in the same polished British accent as his daughter and with a tone containing a distinct hint of unwelcome.

‘I am so sorry to turn up like this, with no warning. It’s about my son, Dylan, who—’

‘We always enjoyed having Dylan here.’

‘Did you? Oh my… that’s… I… I enjoyed meeting Mei Lin too, although it was only the once. Look, Mr…’

‘Chen. Jo Chen.’

They shook hands, with an awkwardness that felt mutual. ‘My son – Dylan – took off without warning nearly three months ago,’ Esther blurted, her cool command deserting her, ‘to go travelling… and seeing as he and Mei Lin were… I just wondered if…’

‘Ah.’ His face softened, and he beckoned her inside, under a dazzling chandelier spraying arrows of light across the ceiling and up a broad set of stairs further along the hall. ‘Mei Lin,’ he shouted up the staircase. ‘Come down and talk to Dylan’s mother.’

Esther blinked, clutching her handbag, fighting disappointment.

‘Can I offer you a refreshment of any kind?’ he asked, gesturing for her to go through a doorway into a room on her right.