Jennifer offers comfort to Clarrie, remembering her experience when Kate went awol.

Radio Times: Jennifer finds a friend in need.

Characters: Alistair, Clarrie, Fallon, Jennifer, Jolene, Shula

• Shula tells Jennifer a white lie – to get out of her 30th wedding anniversary party tonight – but she is caught on the hop when Jennifer mentions the Dawn Chorus walk.
• Clarrie, beside herself about Ed, is worried that she cannot now get through to Jazzer. Fallon is able to assure her that he is OK but she will be having a few words with him later, when they go looking for Ed, because he has obviously been leaving his phone off. She and Jazzer are going to talk to drug dealers; if Ed is short of money that would be a quick way to make some. Emma is in worse way than Clarrie: she blames herself.
• Alistair has brought flowers, which eventually meet with Shula’s approval. He will have to make a miraculous ‘recovery’ for the early morning walk: Daniel is so looking forward to it. Without consulting or thinking, Shula has arranged to have all the family children on Thursday, for which she needs Alistair’s help. But he has a meeting which, of course, is not in the diary.
• Jennifer understands exactly how Clarrie feels, based on her experience of Kate going missing for eight months when she was 15, so she calls to offer comfort and reassurance that he will turn up one day, when he’s ready. She thinks leaflets would help and offers to print some.
• Alistair is checking his email, though Shula could avoid the suspicion that he was gambling. He admits that the temptation does not go away; he is just hanging on until Thursday. Shula is trying hard to convince herself that they will come through in the end.