‘But what did the other girls say about the fire? You must have talked. Did you hear anything? Steve Warboys had done time for burning down his own places for insurance money. Did you hear anything about that? That Warboys might have started the fire?’

‘I heard nothing,’ she said.

‘Did you ever see a man at the Champagne Room whose face was covered with tattoos?’

I watched her mouth tighten with what looked like fear.

‘I don’t mean a black teardrop under one eye,’ I said. ‘I don’t mean a dolphin on his neck. This guy – his name is Troy – has tattoos over every inch of skin on his face. Did you ever see him?’

She said nothing.

‘You would know him if you saw him,’ I said. ‘It’s kind of hard to mistake Troy for someone else.’

‘Once,’ she said. ‘One night I saw such a man. Before you came for the first time. The other girls told me to stay away from him. Because he likes to hurt people. It gives him pleasure, they said.’

‘He talked to Warboys?’

She shrugged. ‘They were in the VIP room. I stayed away from them. And then he was gone. He just disappeared.’

No, I thought.

Someone who does that to their face can never disappear.

After the riot in Savile Row, and the assault on the young uniformed officer, Troy’s description was on every police Most Wanted list in the land.

How the hell do you hide an ugly mug like that?

By running off to Dunkirk, I thought.

And crawling back under your rock.

Bianca was smiling at me now, lowering her chin as she shyly peered up at me.

‘I thought about you so much,’ she said.

She placed her hand on my face and now I was embarrassed. They know me in the Bar Italia. I gently took her hand away.

‘Bianca,’ I said. ‘If you’ve got nothing to tell me then what the hell are you doing here?’

‘I want to work for you,’ she said. ‘I can do anything for you, Max. Clean. Cook.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Take care of you.’

I felt a stab of anger.

‘I don’t need you to do anything for me,’ I said.

She looked crushed.

‘But … you told me to come and see you.’

‘I told you to come and see me if you had any information.’

‘You told me to come and see you if you could help.’

Is that what I told her? Maybe it was.

‘You don’t need me,’ she said.

I made my voice go hard.

‘That’s right, Bianca. I don’t need you.’

‘That’s all right,’ she said. ‘Men say things they don’t really mean all the time. I understand.’

My phone was vibrating with new messages. It was time to go.

‘Aren’t you going to finish your coffee?’ I said.

‘I don’t like coffee,’ she said.