We sat in silence, reflecting no doubt on the unwisdom of Liv’s behavior, and never seeing that we ourselves were just as foolish and improvident, never understanding that in our whole policy toward Andrew and Alison, our attitude to Liv and our dealings with someone who was, after all, a criminal, we were quite as imprudent as she if not as unbalanced.

The house in which Jonny had a room lacked the graciousness of Maida Vale terraces. It was tall and solid with a ponderous bay on the ground floor and three pairs of sash windows above, its facade unadorned by anything but heavy stone windowsills and branching drainpipes. A man of about Jonny’s own age came to the door. He was as unlike Jonny as could be, being skeletally thin and with a sparse fair beard and long straggly hair. Jonny wasn’t there, he said, he’d moved out the week before. He hadn’t himself seen him leave but the man who owned the house, his landlord, knowing he wanted a room for his friend, had told him Jonny’s was vacant.

“You don’t know where he went, I suppose?” Silver asked.

“You suppose right, mate. I’ve never even spoken to the guy.”

So Jonny had no job and no known address. “What are we going to do?” I asked as we went slowly back to the bus stop. “We could tell the police.” I said this very doubtfully, not yet cured of the Lawless Teenager Syndrome. “I suppose we could. But then they’d come and question Liv. D’you think it’s possible for someone to die of fright? I sometimes think Liv could.”

Silver said he didn’t know but he knew what I meant. Besides, Jonny had been his friend. He couldn’t betray his friend, it would be wrong. On the other hand, Jonny hadn’t just stolen the money and treated Liv brutally, he had hit Håkan Almquist over the head as well and fractured his skull. If he had, if he did.

“You see, we don’t know. It’s all guesswork,” he said. “We haven’t any evidence. It may have been someone else. All we really know is that Jonny’s left his job and moved, but that proves nothing. Oh, and he’s got some new clothes. He may not have known about the money, he may think Liv let you or me put it in our bank accounts.”