I awoke to sunshine flooding the bedroom. At first I was disoriented and didn’t know where I was, but then I moved in the bed and the bundle of assorted aches brought recollection crashing back – the cocktail party, the rioting, the assault. The pain wasn’t too bad considering everything. I had been lucky that Hanna had turned up when he did.

The bedroom door opened and Negrini stuck his head around it, saw that I was awake and came in. ‘How are you feeling? What about breakfast in bed?’

I sat up, unfastened the pyjama jacket and looked at the broad bandages strapping my chest. I prodded myself experimentally and said, ‘No, I’ll get up. Just point me in the direction of the bathroom before you leave.’

‘Okay. Breakfast in half an hour. It’s nine o’clock now and Hanna says he’ll be here at ten.’

I got out of bed slowly. ‘What happened to Jill Salton last night?’

‘She’s okay,’ said Negrini. ‘I checked after we’d sorted you out. She holed up at Abel Stern’s place. Said she’s going back to El Cerco this morning.’

Breakfast was most pleasant. The table was set before a floor-to-ceiling window, which gave a panoramic view of Buque Island, Pascua Channel and a part of San Martin. The sun shone in a cloudless sky, the breakers rolled in from the blue sea and already the first of the brown sun-worshippers were relaxing on the beaches below. The scene was as bright as a picture postcard and it was hard to associate it with rioting and police violence. But Leotta Tomsson was at the breakfast table and her presence – and my aching back – made the reality abundantly clear.

Her dress was a simple shantung sheath and I said, ‘That’s nice.’

‘Mr Negrini was optimistic when he said he could find me a dress,’ she said. ‘I’m six feet tall. One of his secretaries went over to Marshalltown and brought back a selection of my own clothes.’ She poured herself coffee. ‘She said the police arrived at Gregory Plaza just as she was leaving.’

I hesitated with my fork poised in the air. ‘Did they, by God? Did they question her?’

‘She passed them in the lobby. They didn’t stop her but she noticed they went up to the fourth floor. She got out of there quickly.’

‘It’s just as well you didn’t go back. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for losing you too.’

Negrini arrived with a newspaper and sat down. ‘The Chronicle is interesting this morning.’ He passed it to me.