Outside, the rain began to come down in earnest, hammering at the roof.

‘Still here,’ said Rozalia, pulling a cardboard box out from beneath the basin. She lifted a can of instant coffee out of the box, and then a small saucepan and a couple of tin mugs. ‘How’s that fire going?’ she asked, looking over at Chloe.

‘Swell,’ said Chloe, hunkered down by the stove and peering intently at the flames. ‘Is that coffee?’

‘Sure is.’ Rozalia looked over at me. ‘How about you, Jerry? You like your coffee black, I seem to recall.’

‘Unless you’ve got a cow stashed somewhere around here, I figure I don’t really have a choice.’

Rozalia tipped some of the water in the canister into the saucepan and placed it on top of the stove. ‘I guess you don’t. So how about telling us just what it is we’ve got?’

I caught Chloe’s eye. ‘Want to take a look through this with me?’

‘Sort of yes, and sort of hell no,’ she muttered, and shook her head. ‘I still don’t feel ready for all this.’

‘Sure.’ I nodded. ‘I understand.’ I looked at Rozalia, but she just gave me a shrug.

My predecessor had done a good job of wrapping up the pages so that they were watertight. I leafed through them, then started reading. I barely even noticed when Rozalia put a mug of hot coffee down next to me some minutes later.

‘So, don’t keep us in suspense any longer,’ she said.

I put the pages down and looked at her. ‘I’m not sure you’re going to believe this.’

‘Try me.’

I looked at her, and then at Chloe, still squatting by the stove, and held up a page. ‘According to this, my predecessor was carrying out his investigation on Mort Bramnik’s behalf, and at his specific request.’

Both women’s jaws flopped open. ‘What?’ exclaimed Rozalia.

‘Specifically, Bramnik charged him to try and find out if all the equipment failures and other problems might indeed be sabotage. But he was required to carry out his investigation under the strictest secrecy.’ I put the page down heavily. ‘It’s all here,’ I said, waving my hand across the rest of the oilskin’s contents.

‘A secret investigation?’ asked Chloe. ‘Why?’

‘And why go to the effort of hiding all this stuff under a statue?’ asked Rozalia.

‘He wrote a letter to Chloe,’ I said, picking another page up and holding it out towards her. ‘Here.’

Chloe stared at the sheet of paper in my hand, then got up and took it from me and started to read.

Rozalia looked between us. ‘So? What does it say?’