I counted too. The sum was exactly £2,000. Now it’s not really credible that Liv could have appropriated that exact amount unless she had stopped when the figure was reached, not at all a likely proceeding. The money she had on her when she ran away from the Range Rover crash was more probably just under £2,000—I dismissed the idea of its being just over—so she must have acquired the shortfall somehow. It was typical of her compulsive nature to be satisfied only by a round sum. I wondered where she had got the rest since she had never been out of the Silvermans’ house. She must have stolen it, and stolen it from Jonny—a dangerous act, I’d have thought, but I said nothing. Silver refrained from comment on that aspect of the matter too, but he did say one firm decisive thing.

“I know you don’t trust me, Liv, but you’ll have to trust me with the telegraphic transfer. Clo isn’t going to take it into her bank account as well as looking after your two grand.”

Liv had to give in to that. Maybe she thought we’d settled this between us while she was on the phone, but in fact Silver’s refusal on my behalf was the first I had heard of it. She didn’t argue. She handed the money over to me. It made a not very thick wad but still I realized I had never seen so much in one pile before. I divided it into two and put one half in my jacket pocket on the left side and the other in the pocket on the right. Liv stared in a kind of anguish. I don’t know whether this was caused by the apparently cavalier attitude with which I was handling her treasure or the act of handing it over at all.

I wasn’t spending every night with Silver. In fact, though we’d usually be alone in his room until midnight or later, up till then I had spent few whole nights in his flat. For one thing, there was Mabel to look after and since her too adventurous sortie onto the roof I had never taken her back to Silver’s. I felt too that Max and Selina would somehow know I wasn’t there, conclude that I didn’t really want old Mrs. Fisherton’s and throw me out. One weekend Jack and Erica Silverman came for the Friday and Saturday nights, a cue for all Silver’s friends to stay away or, in the case of Liv, lie even lower than usual.