Falmouth is the coastal setting of a pursuit whose route links the harbour, the town centre, and a waterfront guest house. The town’s ferries and walkable streets turn its landscape into part of the action: a stranger can be followed from the quay to a café, then traced to the house where he lives.

Harbour and Ferry

The pursuit begins at Falmouth harbour, where the ferry is in and Joe Roberts is already carrying a ticket. The narrator buys one at the quay while Joe boards, then crosses by boat with him. In the cabin near the stern, the narrator sits opposite and studies Joe as the ferry leaves the quay. The crossing makes the pursuit public yet unobtrusive: the two share a small space, but Joe remains absorbed in his own world.

The ferry later provides a pause in the chase. After settling at Tideways Guest House, the narrator returns to the pier and finds forty minutes before the next ferry to St Mawes. That wait leads back into the town’s café life rather than suspending the investigation altogether.

Streets and Waterfront

At the end of the pier, Joe turns into the main street and crosses into Bean Feast, a health-food shop with a café upstairs. The narrator follows him there. Joe removes his earphones at the counter, where Zip recognizes him and good-naturedly remarks that he is late. She prepares ginseng for him; the encounter gives the narrator a name for Joe and a connection to his routine. Later, while waiting for the ferry, the narrator returns to Bean Feast for coffee and cake and speaks with Zip, who says she was born and raised in Falmouth.

Leaving the shop, Joe heads uphill along a street running parallel with the waterfront. The narrow street opens onto views across the estuary, partly veiled by rain, and a raised pavement follows a terrace of Victorian or possibly Georgian villas. The route shifts from busy public space to a quieter residential edge without losing sight of the water.

Tideways Guest House and Narrative Role

Joe enters the gate of Tideways Guest House, a larger-than-neighbouring house with an extra floor, bay windows, and a basement. Its paintwork needs attention, and its sign identifies it as an AA-listed guest house with en-suite rooms. A black-and-white cat comes from the porch to meet Joe; he pauses to pet it before going inside. The small domestic gesture contrasts with the narrator’s continuing surveillance.

The narrator decides to stay at Tideways too, moving from following Joe through Falmouth to being under the same roof as him. The guest house’s owner is friendly and helpful, unaware that the visitor believes Joe may be capable of something that will change her son’s life. Falmouth’s geography thus serves the plot not merely as scenery but as a sequence of increasingly intimate thresholds: quay, ferry, café, street, and home. The town’s ordinary routines furnish both the cover for the pursuit and the means by which Joe’s anonymity begins to erode.