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AS WE BEGIN THE long walk back, I tell her the thought that flashed through my brain just before I spotted her today, that maybe if I was in disguise and on the run, the bad guys wouldn’t be able to find me.

“Sometimes I just worry that I’m running out of time,” I say.

“Rubbish,” she says.

“I wish.”

“Don’t wish,” she says. “Believe.” She is smiling again. “I didn’t die on you and you’re not going to die on me.”

She gets a few yards ahead, then stops and turns to face me.

“Am I making myself clear, Ms. Jane Effing Smith?” Fiona asks.

I told her that’s what my friends called me.

“In the most non-rubbishy way possible,” I told her.

I tell her about the upcoming trial then, and about the shootout at the Walking Dunes, and how I shot a man before he could do the same to me.

“And you call me brave,” she says.

When she asks me if the nice Dr. Dolittle is still the man in my life, I tell her about Ben’s proposal on the beach.

“Congratulations!” she says. “Another reason to keep believing.”

“I didn’t say yes,” I admit to her, almost sheepishly.

“Wait!” she yells. “You turned him down? Now why in the world would you do something daft like that, dear girl?”

“I didn’t technically turn him down,” I say. “I just didn’t accept his proposal.”

“Now you’re the one talking gibberish,” Fiona says. “Or just bullshit.”

Even bullshit sounds better in her accent, I have to admit. Then I’m laughing again.

“I thought I was seeing a ghost when I saw you walking toward me,” I say. “But I was wrong.”

“In what way?” she asks.

“You’re an angel,” I tell her.

On the phone later I tell Ben Kalinsky about running into Fiona, and about her remission, and her saying I’m daft for not accepting his proposal.

“I knew there was something about that woman I liked,” he says.

“Just because she happens to agree that I should agree to marry you?”

“Because she went back there to beat cancer and then did exactly that,” he says.

Before we end the call, he tells me how much he misses me already, and how much he loves me.

“I know,” I say. “I know. But for the life of me, I still can’t figure out why.”

“Well, I know why,” Dr. Ben says. “I’ve clearly always been a sucker for sick puppies.”

The next day, as soon as they get the results from yesterday’s tests they schedule another new battery of tests for the morning, including even more targeted imaging with another MRI.

When they’re finished with all that, I am summoned to the office of Dr. Ludwig, for a scheduled Zoom call with Dr. Sam Wylie back in Southampton.

Just the sight of Sam’s face on the giant screen across from Ludwig’s desk makes me feel homesick and connected to home at the same time, same as my call to Ben had.

“So how’s it going, pal?” Sam says.

“Gotta tell you, the fun never stops here,” I say. “I’ve got my aquatics class coming up before lunch, then bingo this afternoon.”

I turn to look at Dr. Ludwig. He closes his eyes and gives a sad, dismissive shake to his head. But then he’s heard me try to hide my own anxiety behind dumb jokes before. When I look up at the screen, Sam Wylie isn’t smiling either. And I know she thinks I’m funny.

But there is suddenly a vibe in here I don’t like, not even a little bit.

“So what’s the good news, guys?” I say finally.

Dr. Ludwig answers for both of them. He’s not looking at me. He’s looking at Sam’s face on the screen, as if he’d rather be talking to her.

“There isn’t any good news today, I am afraid,” he says.

I’m the one in the room who’s afraid.