Rob managed to look shocked for a moment. “It wasn’t me, Andy. I just happened to be there. He used to walk about nights, your friend Peter. Some of the lads bumped into him coming back from a few drinks. Chased him about a bit, had a go at stripping him off.”

Dimly, I recalled something similar happening in one of the books Peter had lent me as a teenager. A gay character turning the tables on a bunch of oafs, something about a fountain.

“They put him in the bins, Andy. Headfirst, I’m afraid. One of the big black ones on wheels at the back of the kitchen. He absolutely lost his shit. Shouting. Screaming that we didn’t know what he was capable of. Kept saying that. Then he started crying. Don’t look at me like that.”

“Do you know where David is? Where Peter might have seen him?”

“No, not a clue. Could be on the moon, for all I know. Takes me back, being invited to talk about the complex mystery of Dave to one of his admirers.”

A ruddy-faced man in a charcoal stripe swept into the room and came over to say hello. Rob introduced me as a great friend of his sister’s. When he finally pushed off, Rob turned back to me and said, “But of course, you’re going to stay and have dinner with me.” And then, “I’ll tell you everything.” He stopped. “Or will I? How about this? I will if you will. We can make a game of it.”

The game was we got a question each. Lying was cheating. Rob took my arm as we went into the dining room and tucked my chair in behind me. The menu was all Dover sole and Chateaubriand. We ordered, the wine came, and Rob hunched forward in his chair.

“You go first.”

“Why did you invite us that weekend?”

“Wasn’t the greatest idea, was it? Not since it ended with a dead girl in my garden and the house being crawled over by police. Let me see—” He closed his eyes, opened them, and shrugged. “Honestly, I suppose I thought your presence might prize my sister’s fingers loose from Dave. Call it a hunch. He’s always been suspiciously vague about his time on the run. And then, at the shoot, it was obvious there was something between you. He’d been funny about coming. Not my idea of an ideal brother-in-law. I thought I’d gotten rid after school, but no, a couple of years later he saunters in on my sister’s arm. Guess who it is?