But Josie shakes her head. ‘No. I’m here now. I need to know what I’m facing. When Finn gets out of that van.’

Robin nods. ‘Shout if you find anything,’ he says, although he doesn’t know what they’re looking for.

He goes into the bedroom and it’s much the same in there, if not worse. The bed sheets are yellowing and stained, and there are clothes discarded across the carpet. Empty mugs and crockery lie on their side on the floor. There are a few books on the bedside table: science fiction authors that Robin remembers Finn loving in their youth. It makes him feel sad. How did Finn get from that to this?

Something must have gone seriously wrong in his head to let his home get to this state. And Robin hadn’t noticed. Hell, he’d not been around enough lately to notice.

But Sophie had. She is his girlfriend, for crying out loud. He turns on his heel, a flare of anger, about to confront her again, but when he steps into the living room, Josie and Sandra are standing next to the window, their backs bent, something in Josie’s hand.

Robin goes over to join them, looking over their shoulders. ‘What have you found?’ he asks, and Josie turns, a puzzled look on her face.

She holds a small plastic bag between two fingers.

Robin looks at it, his stomach sinking. It contains a few tiny blue squares of what looks to be paper, plus some even smaller pieces, tiny triangles, cut from the original.

‘What is it, Robin?’ Josie asks.

He glares at Sophie. She’s taken a step back from them, her face pale.

‘It’s LSD, Josie,’ Robin says. ‘Finn was taking acid.’

7

‘Did you know?’ Robin fires at Sophie. ‘Were you aware what Finn was doing?’

He is trying hard to stay calm, for Josie’s sake as much as anything, but is struggling to keep his voice level. And when Sophie nods slowly, his hands clench into fists by his sides.

‘He wasn’t doing it to get high,’ Sophie gabbles, crying now. ‘He was microdosing.’

‘It’s an illegal class A drug, Sophie.’

‘He’s been stressed. The infighting, the squabbles he has to deal with in his team. It’s too much for Finn. And this helped – with his anxiety, his depression.’

‘What’s she talking about?’ Josie asks Robin. ‘I don’t understand any of this. I know people took LSD in the Sixties, but that was then. They were hippies. What’s Finlay doing with it?’

Robin takes a deep breath. ‘From what Sophie’s saying, Finn was taking tiny amounts of it, Josie. It’s been known to help with some kinds of mental illness.’ He turns back to Sophie. ‘But there’s no scientific evidence to back it up. It’s unpredictable. There could have been anything in this.’