Lucas made his move, lunging round the desk, and she flew, hurdling his briefcase, wrenching the door open, and on up the stairs to the top-floor toilet. She heard his thunderous feet behind her on the old wooden stairwell. The crash of shutting the toilet door and the snap of managing to slide the lock across was followed by the slam of his fist on the other side, so hard the hinges rattled.

‘Esther, come out. Please. I beg you. Come out.’

Keeping her eye fixed on the door, Esther shuffled backwards, reaching behind her to lower the toilet seat before sitting down. She leant back against the cistern, holding the mobile delicately now, like the bomb it was, containing their end.

7

The August sun was so blinding that Esther left the door open and ran back for her sunglasses. Feeling the protest in her little toe – compressed inside smart shoes for the first time in three weeks – she raced upstairs to grab her flip-flops for driving, putting her car keys down on her bed and then having to go back for them too.

‘Morning, Esther.’

‘Sue!’ Esther exclaimed, startled, hastily finished locking the door and doing her shoe-swap, juggling her smart handbag and mac. Her neighbour was crouched on her doorstep with a trowel, bedding a tray of fragile green tendrils into a flower tub. ‘Nice to see you. I’m in a bit of a—’

‘We took a parcel for you.’ Sue glanced lazily up, smiling at Esther through her fringe.

‘Oh, goodness, thank you…’

‘Came yesterday morning. Dimmy took it, actually. I was out for the count.’ She patted a patch of the soil round a new sprig with the back of the trowel and scooped out another from the tray.

‘That was kind of him. I was at a client meeting and now I’m afraid I’ve got to…’ Esther paused to yank at her dress, a dusty pink stalwart that she always forgot bunched round her midriff, emphasising exactly the section of her she was most keen to mask. ‘Could I possibly collect it later, do you think, Sue? Only, I am in a bit of a hurry.’

‘Well, you must be going somewhere nice is all I can say. You look gorgeous.’ Sue got to her feet as she spoke, dusting dirt crumbs off her palms.

‘My daughter’s graduation,’ Esther admitted with a smile, her heart sinking uncharitably as Dimitri emerged to join the doorstep chat, his broad grin baring the big gap between his two front teeth.

‘Doesn’t she look gorgeous, Dimmy?’

‘She surely does. All right, Esther?’ He draped his arms over Sue’s shoulders, his dark eyes twinkling in a way that drew attention away from the dark under-pouches of fatigue.

Driving people home all night. Esther couldn’t imagine it. ‘Yes, thank you, Dimitri… I…’

‘Go get her that package, Dimmy, there’s a love. She’s in a hurry.’