If she had to resurrect memories, they ought to be taken from those last months when Jason’s behaviour had altered. April had known something was off. She should have tripped him up on his lies, but love had blinded her. Lust could do the same. Was that why Jason had thought he could get away with it? Was that why Faith was acting so out of character?

Faith was on holiday for another week and, unsurprisingly, there had been no word from her. She was probably having the time of her life, and where was the harm in that? She had looked radiant at the last meeting, and April had been happy for her. It was only after speaking to Tara that she had thought to question Nick’s motives. Trusting people was a habit she needed to break. She had ignored the warning signs with Jason, buried any lingering doubts she had about Bree, and all for fear of what she might find. This time, it was a friend who risked being hurt, and April needed to be brave. When her instincts told her to dig deeper, she listened. She opened up the web browser on her phone.

After twenty minutes of checking out Nick’s business credentials, April had found nothing sinister. His profile on LinkedIn backed up what he had told them about working for an investment bank, and the end date for his employment tied in with his claim that he had lost his job because he had been grief-stricken. His current job role was as a businessman and, although his limousine hire service had been in operation for less than a year, all the reviews so far were positive.

Turning to social media, April could find no trace of Nick on any platform except the Facebook page for his business. That didn’t mean he was hiding something. There were lots of people who weren’t interested in sharing every facet of their lives online. Tara was one of them, and only the other week, April had been tempted to delete her Facebook account too, having been confronted with one of those annoying videos capturing her ‘best moments’ of the year.