“It hasn’t escaped my notice that this is precisely the sum taken from the houseboat when that poor woman was killed. However, I am not for a moment suggesting you were involved in that appalling business.”

What was he suggesting, then? That it was the kind of thing I might be associated with? I understood, then. I saw how he and Selina saw me. As a criminal. The first instance of my criminal behavior was not only climbing the pylon but taking a younger friend up with me and killing him. I smoked, though they had told me not to. I played truant from my polytechnic and lied about it until I was chucked out. And now I was a thief or at least a receiver of stolen goods.

“Well?” he said. “What have you got to say for yourself?”

“I’m looking after that money for a friend.” It was true but it sounded feeble. The truth sometimes does. “She asked me to look after it because it wasn’t safe where she was and she hasn’t a bank account.”

“You’ll have to try rather harder than that.”

“I can’t try harder than tell the truth,” I said. It wasn’t a bad answer on the whole. It made him angry.

“Oh, nonsense, nonsense. Now listen to me. You’ve made something of a mess of the first twenty years of your life. Do you have any idea of what you want to do in the future? Or are you set on becoming one of those down-and-outs one sees sleeping on the streets? But, no, you’re a woman. You’ll marry the first man who’s willing to have you and you’ll make him miserable as well as yourself.”

This picture was so unlike me I couldn’t take it seriously. Not the last part, at any rate. It didn’t even make me cross. “I want to be a roofer,” I said. “I’ll do a City and Guilds building course and I’ll apprentice myself to a roofer.”

“Really?” In order to get up, Max pushed the table a little farther away from him and nearer me. This was a mistake on his part. “I hope you don’t imagine you can remain here while you train to be an artisan. I have other uses for Grandmother Mabel’s apartment. I’d like you out of here within the week.” He was longing for me to beg him not to call the police. “Within the week, Clodagh.”

“I’ll go today,” I said. “Thank you for letting me live here. I am grateful, though you may not believe it.”