‘Not really.’ He forced a smile. ‘It’s like I’ve fallen off the end of the earth. I’m not complaining. I’ve made my bed, so I have to lie in it. Those couple of nights I spent with Imogen are turning out to be just about the most expensive in history.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘I know there’s no way back. Somehow I have to make it work here. I need to find a life, friends, whatever. I’ve asked if there’s an SVR football team I can join. If not, there are a few other expat organizations I can maybe fall in with. It’s just . . . there’s a lot to let go of and I’m not there yet.’

It started to rain, first with a few drops and then in great thumping balls of water. The Panda’s windscreen wipers struggled to keep up. Kate’s gaze was drawn relentlessly back to the side mirror, but the Volvo had disappeared from view and she could no longer be sure they actually had a tail. If anything, it confused her still further.

‘Was it worth waiting for,’ Stuart said, his gaze resolutely dead ahead, ‘your night with Sergei?’

‘Were your trysts with Imogen?’

‘No,’ he said emphatically. ‘Not that it will make any difference, but she wanted more. It was me who cut it off. I felt unbearably guilty, of course, but it was also just . . . second rate, mechanical, by comparison.’

‘Just for the record, it doesn’t make any difference.’

He peered closer to the windscreen. It was misting up now so he put the fan on full. ‘You didn’t answer my question,’ he said.

‘I don’t need to, do I?’

‘And yet you’re here in my car. I guess I’m taking quite a risk driving you wherever it is you’re really headed. So it would be polite at least to try to indulge me with an honest—’

‘Sergei is dead.’

She watched the colour drain from Stuart’s face. He tugged at the stubble on his chin, a sure sign he was nervous. ‘Christ,’ he said. ‘Jesus Christ, Kate.’

‘I didn’t come here to have sex with him. I came to ask him a question that only he would conceivably be able to give me an answer to. This morning, I found him with his throat cut.’

‘After you’d . . .’