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fell weeping into my god-daughter’s arms. Pam stuffed me into her car and drove straight to her flat in the West End. I listened closely while she told me everything which had occurred, from the moment they realised Ally had gone missing on the Friday night.
    ‘Aunt Eloise, you need to have a hot shower and get into bed. If there’s any news I’ll wake you. You can’t do anything now, you’re too tired. Would you like some tea and toast?’’
    I nodded gratefully. There was a lot of her mother in practical Pamela. ‘Yes, thank you. I’ll pop into the shower first.’
    When I got back to the guest bedroom I asked about the concert the night before and how they coped without Ally. Pam’s face showed intense strain.
    ‘They announced Ally was ill and got the soprano Jacqueline Mabardi in. You remember Jacq, don’t you?’
    ‘Yes, of course.’ I met the gorgeous opera singer, a guest of one of the musicians, at a meet the orchestra party a few weeks previously.
    ‘Did it go well?’
    ‘Yes, Jacq was fabulous. She got a standing ovation at the end.’
    Ever pragmatic, after a slight pause, she pre-empted my question. ‘Now, Aunt Eloise, try to rest. And no, Ally didn’t ring while you were in the shower, I promise you.’
    She placed a pillow over my knees and balanced a tray on top. My gaze flickered around the room behind her, lighting on the china fawn I’d given Pam for her sixth birthday, a book for Christmas the year she passed her first music exam. How I wished Ally was still that young and in my protective custody. Oh God, please, where is she? As Pam turned to leave the room, a thought occurred to me. ‘Do you think she might have gone home for some reason and be hiding there? Perhaps she’s had a nervous breakdown …’
    She stared at me as though I lost my senses, which I had. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Maybe she’s back at the house—’
    ‘Aunt Eloise, I’ve already been there with the police late yesterday. We’ve rung all her other friends and our orchestra manager went over there when she didn’t show up for the one o’clock rehearsal just to make sure she hadn’t had a fall or gotten sick. Brie and I drove all around in the early hours of this morning and went back there several times, in case she’d gone home while we were driving. I’m so sorry,’ she added, her eyes filling with tears. She came over and put her arms around me. We clung together, weeping with fear and tiredness.
    Then Pam’s mobile jingled madly from the kitchen. A frisson of excitement shot through me. Perhaps it was Ally? My hopes collapsed when Pam announced that Jessica wanted to borrow some sheet music. As I forced down the food, more buried memories leaped out of my Pandora’s Box of a brain, relentlessly dragging me back to that dreadful day of betrayal.
    James’s parents, playing good cop, bad cop to perfection, got me out of England within forty-eight hours. Margaret, snarling like a mad wolf, stood guard over me to make sure I packed and wrote the right notes to my friends and workplace, while Randall went off to make arrangements for my departure. All pretence of empathy vanished along with my hopes for the future. They were like barracuda circling a goldfish.
    God only knows what they told the university, but my immediate boss sent a glowing reference and work record by courier. Randall arranged for my return ticket to be upgraded to first class on the next flight available on the following day, and they gave me an international banker’s draft for fifteen thousand pounds.
    I spent the journey back throwing up in the toilet after I used all the sick bags available and cowering in my seat, terrified, humiliated and sweating under a blanket. Aerophobia is the bane of my existence.
    The hours and then days waiting for James to call dragged me further into despair, but always hoping that he had changed his mind and wanted us. I became increasingly desperate. The flat, emotionless voice of Directory