In strode Andy, shaking ice from his beard as he pulled off his coat and hung it on the hooks beside the doorway. He flopped into a seat across from Katherine, put a small purse on the table and said, ‘Are you sure you couldn’t have got on without this, babe?’

Sofia laughed, too loudly, and, when Katherine snapped her a look, quickly pivoted her attention back to the window in mock fascination at the storm.

‘What’s with you guys?’ I asked. I didn’t have to point for Sofia to know who I was talking about, but Sofia still shrugged like she didn’t understand me. ‘Come on. Katherine. She was really on your case this morning. I didn’t even know you two were close enough to have those kinds of arguments.’

‘Was she? I didn’t notice,’ Sofia deflected. I wasn’t convinced. Katherine’s scorn was like your mother’s eye; you knew when it was on you. But she clearly didn’t want to talk about it. ‘So, you’re a lawyer now?’

‘I guess so.’

‘Don’t you have, like, ten steps for solving crime or whatever? Just do’—she wriggled her hands in the air like she was performing a magic trick—‘a bit of all that.’

‘They’re rules, not steps. And they’re not mine. Plus,’ I leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, ‘I don’t even like legal thrillers.’

‘What are you going to do next, then?’

‘Well, I figure if I go to law school, do an internship and slot in my Honours somewhere, I should have Michael out of that closet in, oh . . . about eight years.’

‘Can he even do that? Nominate you, I mean.’ She took a huge gulp from her mug. It rattled as she placed it back on the saucer. ‘And why you?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said, which was the truth to both her questions, but what Michael had said to me outside – I have some things to say that I think I owe you – lingered. ‘A person can represent themselves in court without being qualified, right? Maybe this is just an extension of that. Or it’s not legal at all. But Crawford’s not really playing by the rules here, either. I’m not sure he even understands them, and maybe Michael’s using that to his advantage. If he plays along, he gets what he wants. Marcelo seems to think it’s a good idea to get Michael to talk to me, so I’m playing along for now.’

‘How could being locked up in a sweat box be what he wants?’

‘At the moment, I’m guessing it’s one of two things: if I’m technically his lawyer, he gets to speak to me as much as he likes, in private, right? Crawford has to let him. He said he wanted to talk to me outside. So maybe Michael wants me there.’

‘And your second guess?’