July 2015

Bink and Gatsby had been living on the outskirts of Cambridge since the beginning of the year. Bink feared their six-month rental agreement would not been renewed. Complaints from the neighbours included screams, disturbances, police visits.

On one occasion, she told me long afterwards, Gatsby cried out for help from passersby.

Mate, they said. What you chattin’? You twice her size, man.

Gatsby had his back to her, trapped in the corner of the garden as she was.

Anxious and distressed though Bink became at the thought that they might lose where they were living, I confess I was hugely relieved.

Until we realised, in late July, that they had disappeared without trace...