‘Well,’ said Rozalia, looking around the deserted harbour. ‘The night’s still young. I knew him, though certainly not as well as Chloe. How about I go out there with you and we can take a look ourselves first? And if we don’t find anything, we head out again in the morning with Chloe.’

‘That,’ I said, with feverish excitement, ‘sounds like a damn good idea.’

SEVENTEEN

Not long after I had got home and grabbed up the notebook and stuffed it in a satchel, I saw headlights pull up outside. I slung the satchel over my shoulders and stepped back outside to find Rozalia waiting there for me behind the wheel of an open-top jeep. To my surprise, Chloe was sitting behind her.

‘I hate you,’ Chloe said tonelessly, as I climbed in the front beside Rozalia.

I stared over my shoulder at her in bafflement. ‘What the hell did I do?’

She glared at me. ‘Not you. Queen Bitch there in the driver’s seat.’

‘Now, now,’ said Rozalia.

‘I need to sleep,’ Chloe moaned.

‘So sleep,’ said Rozalia testily. ‘I’m the one who’s driving.’

‘Maybe Chloe’s right,’ I said. ‘She needs to get some rest. You and me can handle this just fine.’

Rozalia gave me a withering look. ‘The sooner we get out there and try and figure this out,’ she said, ‘the more chance I have of working out whether there’s any connection with what happened to Nadia. And I’m not waiting one damn minute more than I absolutely have to. So I say we’re going now. Got that?’

Chloe stared at her blearily, then let her head sink back against her seat until she stared up at the stars.

‘Here,’ said Rozalia, grabbing a plastic tin from the dashboard and handing it back to Chloe, who stared dully at it in her hand.

‘What is this?’ she asked.

‘Mother’s little helper,’ said Rozalia with a grin. ‘Couple of those and you’ll be scaling mountains in no time.’

Chloe shook her head wearily, shaking a couple of the amphetamine tablets into her palm and dry-swallowing them. I pulled the notebook back out of my satchel, riffling through the pages until I found the entry I wanted.

‘Did you tell Chloe about what just happened at Wallace’s place?’ I asked Rozalia.

‘She told me,’ Chloe muttered from behind me. ‘And I know all about the half-coin you and the other Jerry always wore. He’d never walk out of the house without it.’

‘You sound like you resented it,’ I said.

She nodded. ‘I did. But I couldn’t blame him either.’ She sighed. ‘We compromised, and he just carried it in his pocket.’

I smoothed down the notebook pages, then passed it back to Chloe. ‘Look at the drawing,’ I said.