They wanted to know if Jonny had been here, in the flat, as he said he had, on the evening before the body was found. It was quite a long time ago now and maybe (they suggested) Silver would have difficulty in remembering. But Silver had no problem with that. Jonny had arrived at around seven and stayed all night. He had stayed till morning. Liv said the same, though her eyes shifted about while she talked, never looking directly at the policemen but giving them wary sidelong glances, which made me wonder if she would have found it much more satisfactory to rid herself of Jonny by saying he hadn’t been there and she hadn’t seen him that evening. But perhaps it was only that she was afraid. Afraid of any policemen, no matter what they had come about. She, like us, must have wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t handed the Hindes’ money over to me the night before and they had found it stashed between the TV and the video. It was on that visit that they told us the stolen sum was in the region of £2,000, exactly the amount Liv had accumulated.

She went into Jonny’s bedroom after they had gone, from the way she looked at him over her shoulder obviously hoping Wim would follow her. He didn’t. In his roofer role he joked a bit with Silver about mending the guttering and how about repointing the chimney stack while he was up there, and then he went back out of the window. He had only come in for a drink of water, he said. Silver put his arm around me and I laid my head on his shoulder.

“I remembered about Jonny being here,” he said, “because it was the evening before the day we met. It was the last evening of my life without you. You went into the underpass because that woman’s body was on the canal bank and they wouldn’t let you through.”

“I remember,” I said.

“But d’you know what I’m asking myself, Clo? Would I have told them Jonny was here if I couldn’t remember? Would I just have said it because it’d have been easier and because Jonny’s a friend?”

“That’s just speculation,” I said. “You did remember. He was here.”

“You can’t help wondering, though. And another thing I wonder is if I’ve made Jonny a friend of mine because I know my parents would hate it so much. Childish, isn’t it? The superannuated rebellious teenager. D’you think Jonny will go once Liv has gone?”

I didn’t know. I said he’d more likely find another girlfriend to bring here. But Liv was still there and by next day we knew she had no intention of going.