‘You’ll probably try. I get a feeling there’s more to this than you’re telling me, and it makes me worry that you’re in over your head.’

‘I’m not.’

‘You’re just a farmer. You don’t know anything about this sort of underworld thing. So stop carrying on like you do. I think you should come and stay with us.’

‘I’m not going to, so give it up.’

He finishes his meal, takes his plate to the sink, turns to me, and I know it’s speech time. ‘You’ve been through a hell of a lot. Everyone’s worried about you. Now is not the time to turn into some sort of vigilante private detective.’

‘I’m not. I won’t. I swear.’ The thought of staying with people, even the best people, is something I just can’t do.

He smacks his lips, and walks across the room and back. ‘Righto then, but I expect phone calls, and if you don’t call, I’ll come over every day and check on you.’

He gets into his ute shaking his head at me, fires it up, backs out, and then obviously has second thoughts. He winds down his window and says, ‘No bloke is an island. You know that, don’t you?’

‘Of course.’

‘No you don’t. But to prove to you that two heads could be better than one, here’s a thought: fine-bone china. I did some reading about it this morning. Think about it. See ya.’

I watch him drive away, a little queasy in the stomach from his suggestion, and feeling the smallest sensation that if Marko exists I am not completely unlucky. I don’t know if he’s onto something, but I guess we’re both thinking there has to be a link between Tito’s pottery and the ash of assassinated enemies of the Vasiliev family.

The problem of Elaine presents itself again. If Tito sent the ash and the money as a diversion, this suggests that Tito and presumably Elaine were on the side of the good guys: trying to subvert the blackmailers. But even if that is true, she’s put me in a considerable amount of danger for no reason. She hasn’t even warned me. Is the money a salve for that?

Somehow, Tito must have decided not to do what the Vasilievs were expecting him to do. He was in trouble. Perhaps they were threatening to kill him, and later on did kill him. For some reason, he started sending things to me, but made sure they wouldn’t arrive for a year. Was he protecting Elaine, or hiding it from her?