‘That’s what I remember too,’ Spike said, taking a long pull on his wine, looking pleased with himself.

Ginger leaned into him and placed a soft kiss on his mouth. He looked up at her, eyes shining. He was crazy about her. And that’s why she could get him to do this thing for me. So it was perhaps a good idea after all.

On the child monitor I could hear Christian tucking in Marlon.

Spike looked at the business card and then at me.

‘James Caine of Samarkand Wealth Management,’ he read, and the sound of that name in my home made something choke in my heart. ‘Some rich big shot who thinks he can do whatever he likes and there’s never any consequences.’

I nodded. ‘That’s about it.’

Spike was thoughtful. ‘So you’d never seen this guy until he showed up at the office? You’d never met him before?’

‘What does it matter where she met him?’ Ginger snapped. ‘He’s a problem, Spike. Last chance – you going to help or shall I do it myself?’

I could feel my anger toward James Caine rising, that anger I had felt when I saw those photographs of me on his phone, and the anger I had felt when he had appeared at my office.

‘He turned up at the office and I’d never seen him before in my life until that day,’ I lied, and then I paused for a little of the bitter truth, because I was learning that lies always work best when seasoned with as much of the truth as you can manage. ‘And Ginger is right – he’s scaring me, Spike. He’s really scaring me. Because I don’t know what he’s going to do next.’

Ginger came to me on the sofa and put her arm around me.

‘You’re afraid this guy – this James Caine – might come to the house?’ Spike said.

‘Yes.’

‘You’re afraid of what he might do if he turned up here?’

‘That’s right.’

‘And Christian doesn’t know because you don’t want to worry him?’

I nodded, unable to speak.

Spike slipped the business card into the back pocket of his jeans. ‘No worries,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a quiet word.’

‘Good boy,’ Ginger said, and blew him a kiss. She indicated the empty wine glass in his hand. ‘I’ll get you a cold one from the fridge, shall I, lover?’

Ginger went off to the kitchen for Spike’s beer reward, and we were alone at last. Spike stared at me for a long moment and then his face split into a knowing grin as if, after all these years of being friends, we saw each other clearly at last.

He had listened very carefully to my sad story.

And he didn’t believe a word of it.

11

Tara

It was my father’s sixtieth birthday and just as we arrived at the party, my phone started buzzing inside my bag. I ignored it but it kept right on buzzing as Christian paid the taxi and Marlon and I stood on the pavement holding hands, the pair of us gazing up at the room above the pub that had been rented for Leo’s big night. On and on my phone buzzed as Frank Sinatra sang about escaping down to Rio.