‘Was it fine-bone china Tito was being forced to make?’

‘I don’t know. It’s possible.’

‘What if Tito, as part of the blackmailing, was being forced to put other materials into his pottery?’

‘Like drugs?’

‘Maybe.’

‘I really don’t know. Seems unlikely. They really liked his pottery.’

‘The Vasilievs?’

‘Who?’

‘They’re like an underworld family in the city. I was thinking they might be Tito’s blackmailers.’

‘Never heard of them. I only ever dealt with an intermediary. I didn’t know who Tito’s gambling debt was owed to, either time. Have you been on your own a lot since hospital?’

‘No. Marko stayed for a night, and, and …’ I almost mention Frank’s visit.

‘Then maybe you know something that I don’t.’

Maybe I do.

‘I talked to Shiflon. He said he told you Tito was mailing boxes to me.’ It sounds ridiculous, and I suppose if Elaine doesn’t know anything about it, it is ridiculous. She is quiet for a long time.

‘I don’t know what’s going on here, Dave. I thought we were friends, maybe something more. But you always seem to be trying to catch me out somehow. Why would you go to the trouble of speaking to Shiflon? The guy has serious problems. He lives in Willi because it’s the only place where his conspiracy theories about the world can’t come true.’

I silently agree with her point, and avoid mentioning that he shot at me. ‘I know. It’s just that I received money and human ash in the mail. Then a guy called in, looking for the remains of his brother, saying he’d got a note from Tito. He identified the ashes as being his brother. His brother had been executed by the Vasilievs. I’m just trying to work out what is going on. Shiflon seemed to know about it.’

‘I’m not sure I get the connection.’

‘I’m wondering if it’s possible that Tito was being forced to put ash from human bodies into his pottery pieces.’

‘Ash from human bodies?’

‘People who were murdered by the Vasilievs.’

‘Why?’

‘To make a kind of trophy, a memento, that says, “Don’t fuck with the Vasilievs.”’

She sighs loudly. ‘All right then. Let’s go through it. You think Tito was making pieces out of the bones of people who were executed?’ I can hear that she is doing her best to take me seriously.

‘Yes.’

‘So he was doing that on this farm. I’ve had them in this house?’ Her breathing is heavy, and I am sorry to have brought the news to her. But then she shows me how poorly I’ve assessed her take on this. She says, ‘Are you taking anything? Drugs?’

‘No.’

‘I know about grief, and I would understand if you had to lean on something like that occasionally.’