JUDGE: Did you plan to steal her Mevludin print from the beginning?

LUCIJA: I didn’t steal it. I took it with me as I left because that was my instinct. My country lost its best things during the war. I knew she would have understood. I never had a chance to discuss it with her but in that moment I knew it was the right thing to do. Eva was a very generous and understanding person. Afterwards, I was proved right by the will. She had already thought to leave it to me. She knew it had value to me because of Bosnia, and my friendship with Mevludin’s family, far beyond any monetary value. Of all the possessions she could have given me, this one is legitimately mine. A repatriation of culture. A rematriation, rather.

JUDGE: You were lucky, too.

RUTH: We let them both go. He admitted to entering the house. She admitted to acting in self-defence, and using civilian powers of arrest. They had both seen Eva taken away in front of their eyes. An understanding had passed between them. The money aspect – Eva was improvising. He never got the money, nor did he ask for it.

ALICE: After I heard that Eva was missing, presumed dead, my dreams got quite intense. I heard her talking to me, calling to me. I knew only too well what Pomponius Mela had written, about some islands near Britain where some female oracles lived, who could stir up the wind and the waves. My dreams were full of rising seas and totally unseasonable weather events. I felt that Eva was in control of it, in a wild way. She kept telling me things, sometimes she was shouting at me, sometimes she was recounting long ancient stories – all the work we’d been doing together – sometimes she was scolding me for not writing fast enough. She shouted about the wind and the rain, how she would stir it all up and make the seas rise and drown us if we didn’t wake from our indolence. It was an invasion of my personal space. [Blows nose] I got into such a state that my husband didn’t want me to go back to the islands ever again. He was worried for the effect on my mental health – what had Eva done to my head? I was beside myself with worry – Eva was missing. Why? What did it mean? Which legend was it?—

JUDGE: Thank you—

ALICE: And weeks later, when I finally unpacked my small travelling bag, from that last trip, in the seams were little runnels of archipelago sand, mud and grit. It was as if Eva had sent me a message, saying, I made you promise, and now, whatever happens, however difficult it becomes, I want you never to forget. [Weeps]