I leaned forward and placed the nose against his forehead.

‘It’s in your own interest,’ I said. ‘If they take me into the rubber room - which I can guarantee you they will if anyone touches Slavin before I get there - I’ll give them everything I have on you before I bite down on the capsule.’

His expression remained blank - he didn’t think I had enough on him for it to matter.

‘They mightn’t find you, of course,’ I said. ‘You mightn’t even be here by then.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If I come under suspicion, Moscow will almost certainly recall you.’

It had a more benign ring to it than ‘dispatched’, but it amounted to the same thing. His breaths had started coming short and fast now, and I thought I could see the logic gradually penetrate.

‘All right,’ he said, finally. ‘You’re on your own.’

‘When’s your next report?’

Hesitation. I twitched my finger a fraction.

‘The second, barring emergencies.’ He managed a smile, and I liked him a little for it. It brought to mind the Sasha I had known and worked with for so long.

But, then, that Sasha was a liar.

The second: that was ten days away. We drove on in silence for a few minutes, and then I pulled up at a yard filled with blackened barges. A sign on a wall proclaimed that ‘DOGS LOVE VIMS’. The dirt in the air from the coal-loading wharf upstream was everywhere, impregnating the lamp-posts and the buildings, and the smell of tar and water was suddenly pungent. ‘Your chief’s body,’ Sasha said suddenly, as I drew to a halt.

‘You didn’t say what you had done with it.’

I’d been wondering how long it would take him. I nodded at my coat behind his head. He glanced back over his shoulder and swore violently in Russian. ‘You’re going to dump him in the river.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘We are.’

I parked the car close to the edge and we carried the body down, wrapped in the blanket. I took the arms, Sasha the feet, and we shuffled along to the end of the lock, stopping every couple of minutes - he kept complaining that it was tricky to keep a firm hold. Finally we were there, and we lowered Chief onto the moist gravel.

Sasha clapped his hands together, looking for a moment as though he would make a comment about the recent cold snap. I prayed he wouldn’t - I didn’t want to lose control altogether.

I began scouring the ground for stones and suggested he do the same. When I had a handful that were large enough, I stuffed them into Chief’s pockets.