I want to protest—to say it’s impossible, he must be a parent—but I’m interrupted by the door of the spare room opening. Ethan walks in holding a piece of paper. “My test,” he says. I press my finger against my lips to shush him. He mouths, “Zero marks out of ten,” just in case I’d forgotten. I give him my best solemn nod, then steer him out onto the landing and close the door again. Sophie would never let me get away with ushering her out of the room so frantically. She’d have narrowed her eyes and said, “All right, what’s going on? And don’t lie!”

“Nicki? You still there?”

All those days and weeks, leaning against his shiny blue car, looking like a bored dad, waiting. “It was the perfect way to follow me, wasn’t it?” I say. “Pretend to be a parent, blend in with all the other parents. Hang around the school in full view, in a way that no one would unless they had a child there, or unless they were some . . . psychopath, so practiced at following people that they know how to do it without arousing suspicion.”

“I’d have said professional, not psychopath, but . . . yeah. That’s my conclusion too.”

“Professional?”

“A private detective of some kind,” says Kate. “What’s going on with you, Nicki? I’ve always thought you seemed far more interesting than any other school parent who’s ever crossed my path. You must have an exciting life if someone’s paying to have you followed! If I invite you around and bribe you with cocktails, will you tell me the full story?”

It’s so tempting. The full story, though? Maybe not quite. But Kate doesn’t need to know that. Thinking about it, I don’t know the whole story myself. Assuming I decide I want to trust her with it, should I tell her only what I know for certain, or what I suspect as well? What do I know for sure? I can’t think straight—haven’t really been able to since I opened my front door to the police on Tuesday.

Analogies. Gavin said he loved my bizarre analogies, plural, but in my entire correspondence with him I only produced one: the vegan Barack Obama. I read all my emails to Gavin again last night to check.