Rounding the corner of the corridor Justin was on, Alicia was surprised to see Jessica coming towards her. Shouldn’t she be at work? Concentrating on her phone as she walked towards her, Jessica didn’t appear to notice her.

‘Jess?’ Alicia said, eyeing her curiously. Typing out a text, she still hadn’t seen her.

Jessica’s head snapped up. ‘Alicia!’ She looked surprised. ‘I didn’t think you were coming until later.’

‘I had a few things I wanted to get for Justin, and then I had my doctor’s appointment, but, to be honest, I couldn’t face it. You know, having to go over why I’m not sleeping well.’

‘Ah.’ Jessica nodded, and pushed her mobile into her bag.

‘I take it you came to see Justin?’ Alicia asked, when Jessica didn’t add anything else.

‘I thought I would pay him a visit,’ Jessica said, glancing down at her shoes. They must be killing her, Alicia thought. They were a least six inches high, and definite toe-pinchers. Not the sort of shoes she’d want to wear to troop along hospital corridors. ‘He was a bit tired though, so I didn’t stay long. I left him a few bits and bobs.’

‘Well, I’m sure he appreciated the visit, and the bits and bobs.’ Alicia smiled. ‘But shouldn’t you be at work?’

‘I had to deliver some papers to a client. I’ve wangled the rest of the day off,’ Jessica said quickly.

‘Oh right. Well, I’ll see you back at yours then.’ Leaning in to give her a hug, Alicia noticed the troubled look in her eyes. ‘Jessica? Is everything all right?’

‘Yes.’ Jessica said, her gaze flicking down and back. ‘It’s probably nothing, but…’

‘But?’ Her antennae on red alert for the next bad thing to happen, Alicia urged her on.

‘Justin seems a bit… confused,’ Jessica said, her expression now a mixture of sympathetic and guarded. ‘Mixed up,’ she elaborated, as Alicia looked at her worriedly.

‘Mixed up how?’ she asked apprehensively, praying that he wasn’t heading back to the pit of despair he’d been in once before.

‘It’s probably just the stress of everything catching up with him,’ Jessica said. ‘He seems to think I’ve said things which I haven’t, that you’ve told him things. He’ll be fine after a good rest. Don’t worry, Ali.’

But Alicia was worried. ‘What kind of things?’ She felt her eyes filling up all over again.

‘Little things,’ Jessica said, seeming reluctant. ‘The missing photographs, for instance. He seems convinced that I told him you had them, and I distinctly remember I didn’t. I mean, why would I when you don’t? Like I say, it’s nothing major. I thought I should warn you though.’ Jessica gave her arm a squeeze. ‘He’s just a bit muddled. He’ll be fine.’

Alicia nodded bewilderedly.

‘I’d better get back to work,’ Jessica said, kissing her cheek. ‘See you later, sweetheart.’

Watching her go, Alicia ferreted in her pocket for the loo roll she’d grabbed from the patients’ toilet, in the absence of tissue, and wiped her eyes. Earlier, she’d decided she would try again to talk to him. Not here, obviously, while he was so ill. She wasn’t sure whether she would be able to talk sensibly, feeling as confused as she was, consumed with guilt, her heart fit to burst in her chest. And she wasn’t sure whether he would ever be able to listen, but she knew she had to try. She’d even considered writing to him, because then she wouldn’t have to see his face, read the expression in his eyes.

That would have to wait now. He needed to get well. And if he needed her to keep her distance until he did, then she would do that. At least he had Jessica to visit him, who clearly cared for them both.

She was pondering what Jessica had meant by things she’d told him as she went into Justin’s room. Finding his bed empty, she frowned, puzzled. He was up and about but wasn’t supposed to be walking very far yet with his drip. Perhaps they’d taken him for some test or other? Walking across to his locker, Alicia deposited her bags, and her heart stopped dead. His drip was still there, the cannula he’d had in his hand pulled out and abandoned on the bed. Holding her breath, she checked his locker. His mobile was gone. His clothes…

Oh God, no. ‘Justin!’