‘Before he got out, he had me tell everyone the wrong date of his release. And he asked me to hire a truck because he said we had to pick something up, and that we had to do it at night. He said he knew where he was going and he just needed one day after he was out to finish everything off. So, I go along with it, and then we’re in a graveyard, and I tell him I don’t want to do anything like this, and he tells me it’s just dirt and wood and that he needs my help. So we use the straps and the pulleys and the truck’s engine to pull this coffin out of the ground. Michael opens it, takes one glance and says that we have to bring it up here with us. So we put it in the truck, and came up here. I think he was quite pleased with himself. I don’t think he thought he was going to die. Your dad did robberies, so I put two and two together and assumed the coffin was just there to house something more valuable. I don’t know – diamonds? Obviously I didn’t think we were digging up a corpse, in case that wasn’t clear. I would have run a mile.’

‘You told me before that Michael wouldn’t tell you what Alan was selling. If you’d gone to the effort of digging up a coffin, why didn’t you ask what was in it?’

‘I did. He said it was safer if I didn’t know.’

‘You haven’t asked me either.’

‘It seems that everyone who knows what’s really in there is winding up dead, or close to,’ she reasoned, with a pointed look at my hand. ‘I figure he was onto something.’

‘And maybe that’s part of it too. Say that Green Boots is a nobody. He was killed to make it obvious that the Black Tongue, or whoever is pretending to be the Black Tongue, is here. Or, he was killed because he got in the way. What if Michael was the real target all along?’

‘It means anyone who knows what’s in that coffin is in danger,’ she said.

This was the same idea Marcelo had alluded to. Marcelo hadn’t known there was a coffin in the truck, and Erin didn’t know what was in the coffin. By their logic, I, knowing the most, would be next on the Black Tongue’s list.

‘If that’s the case, you need to tell me something else. We’re past lying to each other. We were married for four years, and you still flinched at the thought of kissing in public. But you and Michael . . . It doesn’t make sense.’ I paused, hoping she’d figure it out without me saying it, which would mean admitting to how closely I’d observed them.