‘I’m sure she’ll be fine,’ Janie interrupted, though she actually thought Harry was completely in the wrong. His hands weren’t tied; he’d taken what he’d thought was the easy option. Over the years since she’d met Harry she’d seen glimpses of such weaknesses that others probably didn’t recognise. She’d always thought they were rooted in his earlier need to impress his father. Harry had never wanted to take on his dad’s advertising agency, he’d wanted to be an artist. A fact he’d once confided to Janie, when drunk. But she saw a flicker of that need in Harry at times – none more so than when her life came tumbling down around her five years ago. Harry hadn’t taken her side then. He’d taken Miles Morgan’s. As if somehow he had thought that was the easier thing to do.

Janie sighed as her thoughts returned to Laura. She was certain the woman would have a case, if she ever wanted to take it further. It would be something that would interest Janie to take on, if she didn’t suspect the person in question might have had an affair with her husband.

‘Were you at the quay today?’ Harry asked suddenly.

Janie felt herself blush.

‘It doesn’t matter if you were – it’s just someone saw you, that’s all.’

‘Laura?’ Janie spat out the name before she had the chance to stop herself. She pulled away from him and off the sofa.

‘No. Not Laura.’ He looked at her, quizzically. ‘It was Mia, actually.’

‘Oh.’

Mia. Nicely dressed. Stylishly short haircut. Apart from Laura, she stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the women, who often looked as if they’d worn the same cardigan for weeks. The new girl. Though Janie supposed she wasn’t that new any more. Maybe, she considered, it could be good to meet Mia, finally have a ‘friend’ on the inside. The woman certainly had something about her, if she’d managed to push Laura to one side.

‘Do you want coffee or more wine?’ she asked.

‘Wine, please,’ he said as she left the living room and went up to her bedroom to get a jumper. Grabbing it from the bed, she pulled it on and went to the window to draw the curtains closed, but when she got there something caught her attention. Fingers curling round the edges of the fabric, she peered closer at first, then quickly pulled back. Her hands fluttered against the curtains as she stood aside, her breath short and fast.

There was someone in the bushes. She would have passed it off as an animal, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Janie had also felt someone watching her when she left yoga that Monday.