The building housing the courtroom was a pile of yellow stone and pillars. Inside, the decor was faux-Edwardian: dark wood panelling, with a glass dome in the ceiling and a muffled atmosphere. It was busy but not full. Sylvie arrived, still dressed in black, her hair in loose waves, and made her way around the gallery to where I was sitting next to Boy. The air in the courtroom was a strange red colour, giving her a fiery halo as she stood in front of us.

‘Blood in the sky,’ she said. ‘It’s for Freddie.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Boy asked.

She gripped the back of the seat in front of her and I knew it wasn’t just a show, as June thought. I felt a rush of fear that she was going to out me. I held my breath. From outside came the muffled noise of cars. A fruit-seller went by with his wares, reciting them in a sing-song voice: pineapples, mangoes, guavas, bananas.

‘It’s his favourite time of day,’ she said, and sat down.

Boy gave me a meaningful look.

The coroner appeared and proceedings began. They started slowly, with the coroner explaining what an inquest was in law, and how it differed from a trial. ‘Most importantly,’ he repeated more than once, ‘it is a fact-finding inquiry, rather than deciding issues of blame or guilt.’ His voice was high-pitched and grating, and I saw several spectators wince or cover smiles.

He went on to read out several statements – one describing the results of the autopsy and the injury sustained to Freddie’s skull, one from Brandon describing their dinner at the Muthaiga, and one from Freddie’s neighbour, who ‘thought he had seen someone enter the garden of the deceased, and hadn’t seen him leave’.

The room was warm and my throat was dry. I tried to swallow and found my body strangely unresponsive. I willed time forward. The coroner’s voice was monotonous and he took long pauses to look through the papers in front of him.

‘What’re the odds it was an aggrieved husband?’ Boy murmured to me during one of the pauses.

I tried to force a smile but I could feel how unnatural it was and my lips seemed to have stuck against my teeth.