She continued to leaf through them. ‘The Godfather… Carlito’s Way… Goodfellas…’ She frowned and held up a DVD. She raised one eyebrow. ‘Frozen?’

Frank looked perplexed. Then his face broke into a sheepish smile. ‘Oh whoops! I bought that for when my daughter comes round. Must have got mixed up with the others.’

Looking a little embarrassed, he took it back from her. Frank had a five-year-old daughter called Isabel who he rarely saw, legacy of a marriage wrecked by his extreme dedication to his job.

He suddenly clicked his fingers. ‘Oh yeah, I almost forgot. This place does have a special feature. Follow me.’

He walked into the bathroom. Intrigued, she followed him. He stood by the sink and turned to face her. He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

‘Yes?’ she said, feeling like he was playing games with her.

‘Notice anything?’

So he was testing her observation skills. She looked around. Up, down. Left, right. Nothing special, so it seemed. She shook her head.

‘Good,’ he said, seemingly pleased.

He nodded at the bathroom cabinet which was affixed to the wall just above the sink. ‘There’s a secret compartment in a cavity in the wall behind the cabinet. If you need to hide anything, you can put it in there.’

Grasping the top and bottom of the bathroom cabinet, he gave it a hard pull, and with a small click, the entire thing came away from the wall, opening up like a door, with a hinge on one side. Behind it was a small square recess in the wall.

‘I guess there wasn’t quite enough room to stick a safe in there. But I suppose there’s no need if it’s supposed to be hidden.’

‘I’d only have forgotten the combination,’ said Bailey. ‘Still, it’s a pretty neat feature. I’m sure I’ll find a use for it.’

He nodded with a satisfied smile and pushed the cabinet back into place with a click.

They both returned to the living room.

‘Well, I guess I’ll be going now,’ he said, surreptitiously picking up the DVD of Frozen. ‘I’ll let you get settled in. We’ll be in touch soon about the next stage of the operation. Oh… and Happy New Year by the way.’

On the subject of his final point, Bailey decided she’d wait and see how the next few weeks panned out before making a judgement about whether that was the case or not.

After he’d gone, she stood there for a few moments looking down at the two large bags she’d brought with her. They represented the sum total of her existence from this point onwards. She had to admit, they looked a bit pathetic.

She sighed and knelt down and began to unpack. Along with a few outfits she’d deemed suitable for this particular role, she’d also brought several books of cryptic crosswords, including the one her father had given her for Christmas, as well as a portable Bluetooth speaker so she could listen to her Spotify lists of her favourite eighties power ballads.