‘Except it still doesn’t explain how the hell the damn thing wound up in his bedroom drawer, if he was a hundred kilometres away. Could Wallace have stolen the coin from the other Jerry’s body after they brought it back?’

Rozalia glanced back towards Wallace’s place. ‘I guess it’s possible. But if you want to be sure one way or the other, your only real course of action is just to go back there and ask him while you have the chance.’

‘No.’ I shook my head.

‘Why not?’

I glanced at her.

‘Because of Casey?’ she asked.

‘He started acting weird from the moment he walked into the bar. Didn’t you notice how he was trying to get rid of us the whole time?’

‘Under any other circumstances, I’d have said that was just Casey being an asshole. He’s antediluvian enough to think looking weak in front of a woman is about the worst thing that could happen to him. He’s always strutting around with that damn gun strapped to his leg like he’s the fucking Lone Ranger.’

I’m sorry, Wallace had said. He might just have been apologizing for nearly throwing up on my shoes, but I felt sure it was because of the coin he’d seen in my hand. Sorry for what?

I came to a decision. ‘I’m going to tell you something,’ I said to Rozalia.

She listened while I detailed everything I had learned about my predecessor’s final diary entries, and why I was beginning to suspect they had been deliberately fabricated.

‘I’ll have to be honest,’ Rozalia said drily once I’d finished, ‘Chloe’s not the kind of girl who’d ever put up with that kind of shit. Anyone who did try something like that, I guarantee they’d find themselves relieved of their balls in a second flat.’

‘There has to be some reason,’ I said, ‘for him to have fabricated those entries.’ I pounded one fist into the other. ‘It’s a message of some kind, and it has to do with those statues, I’m sure of it.’

‘Well?’ asked Rozalia, leaning against the sea wall by the harbour and studying me, ‘what’s stopping you?’

‘I tried to get Chloe to go and take a look at them with me, but she was insistent about getting some rest. She’s just back from a mission and, to be fair, she was asleep on her feet.’

Rozalia shook her head. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ she said, ‘but why’s it so important to have her along?’

‘My predecessor didn’t write those entries and draw those pictures for my benefit. He did them for Chloe’s, and he must have believed she could work something out from clues he left. Unless she comes with me, I can’t be sure I can work out whatever it is he intended.’