‘Could be. If she was thinking about blowing the whistle on him. I would think the average guy would go to some lengths to protect his marriage and his career.’

‘Don’t you think you should give the phone to the police?’

‘How would that help?’ Nevis says. ‘No one’s committed a crime.’

‘So far as we know.’

She gestures to his mug. ‘Want a top-up?’

‘No, thanks. Mind if I have another smoke though?’

Nevis watches Luke pull a cigarette from its packet, and waits for him to light it before saying, ‘I think the uni must have known something. It’s no coincidence that they were trying to get Tash to leave. If it had come out that Ratner was sleeping with students and inflating their grades that would have caused quite a scandal. They didn’t want her causing any trouble. Who knows, maybe they were trying to get rid of Jessica and Satnam too?’

Cocking his head to one side and squinting at her, Luke says, ‘I saw an older bloke leaving your flat one time. Maybe it was Ratner.’

Nevis’s mind reels. ‘When?’

‘Like a month ago maybe? It’s kind of awkward to admit this, but sometimes I used to hang around outside. I missed Satnam and it somehow made me feel better. I don’t know, maybe I was hoping she’d see me and realise that she’d made a mistake and get in touch. Or maybe I wanted to find out who she’d cheated on me with. So there was…’ he scrambles for the word, ‘…ambivalence, isn’t that what they call it? But then I saw him coming out of the flat and walking to his car. I thought, so that’s him, the guy she left me for.’

‘Did you get a good look at him?’

‘Not really. It was dark and he was walking pretty quickly to his car. He had an older bloke’s coat on. And a kind of dad walk.’

‘What about the car? You see that?’

Luke nods. ‘A bloke is always gonna look at another bloke’s car, especially if he’s sleeping with your girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend.’

‘And?’ She is hoping he will say it was a silver VW Passat MK7, 2013 model, because she has observed in the past that this is the model driven by Mark Ratner.

‘Like I say, it was dark so it’s hard to be precise but I’d say black or dark grey or maybe midnight blue.’ A dark crease appears on his brow. ‘Trying to remember the make. Nah, it’s gone.’

He pinches out his second cigarette and stands to leave. She goes over to the cleat and pulls the bow rope to bring the boat closer onside. He waits for her then leaps onto the quay. She waits for him to recover his balance and shouts over, ‘Hey, Luke, one thing?’

‘Yes?’ His eyes are expectant.