An oxygen mask was placed on me. There was a string of catheters administered to my arms. Medics crowded me. I blinked and the blackness came back. Then Walter was gone and I was up in the air. Scraping the underbelly of heaven: quite literally. I was later told by Rink that the medics almost lost me. My blood pressure was so low that it was off the charts. They had to do an immediate transfusion while we were still up in the air, and Rink had donated a few pints of his own to keep me going. Afterward he joked about it, of course, telling me I was now part Japanese. Then he got more maudlin, hugged me and said that now we really were brothers. Blood brothers. I liked that.

I was transported to the trauma center at the University of Miami Hospital, but have no recollection whatsoever of my time there. When next I drifted up out of delirium I was at the same hospital where Walter had secreted Alisha Rickard. She was my first visitor. She hobbled in, one leg in plaster and her body swathed in dressings under her shift, toting an intravenous drip on wheels along with her.

I didn’t know what to say.

I was responsible for murdering her husband, and even though he’d abused her, tried to kill her, that might still mean something.

Maybe like Jimena Grajales she’d pull out a gun and start shooting at me.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead Alisha just came up and kissed me on the forehead. We didn’t need words. We understood each other. Alisha walked out again and that’s the last I saw of her.

Rink arrived next.

“When are you gonna get your ass outa bed? We’ve got work piling up.”

He was back to his old self now that my imminent death was out of the picture.

“It could be a while before I’m back to my best, Rink.”

“I know. Maybe it would be a good idea if you took some time off,” he offered. “You’ve some vacation time coming, I guess.”

Not a bad idea. “I’m thinking of heading back home for a while. It’s been a while and I want to check my dogs are okay.”

I’d no doubt that my German shepherds, Hector and Paris, were fine. It was Diane I wanted to see most. For a start, she deserved an explanation for why a friend of mine had been stationed outside her house for the best part of a week. And then there was the other fact . . . I just wanted to see her.

“That’d be great,” Rink said, but there wasn’t as much enthusiasm as I expected. “Just don’t forget you’ve people here who love you, okay?”