‘You think Nina stole it?’ I say, shocked. I think of the fine dust layer on the top.

‘I know. It doesn’t really sound like her. You know how she was even back then – she always had money. I can’t see her stealing it. But there aren’t any other candidates. Unless – no, I don’t think I’ve even had a plumber up there for longer than ten minutes,’ he says. ‘I don’t know who else it could be.’

‘Seb, I need to get it back, or at least find out what happened to it.’

‘Well, you better let me speak to her first and try to iron this out. She might have a reasonable explanation.’

‘Seb. If I don’t have the money, they’ll charge me with murder.’

‘Okay. I’ll call her in the morning,’ he says.

I think about this but tomorrow is too late. ‘I’ve got to meet the solicitor tomorrow. She wants an answer about the money. I really need to know where it is. You don’t understand. I can’t go through a criminal trial. I can’t.’

He is in the middle of pouring out coffee but stops. ‘Fine.’ He takes his phone out and takes a breath. ‘Okay,’ he says and presses a number on the screen.

I hear the number ring. It rings and rings until I’m sure it’s going to ring out. And then at last it’s answered.

‘Nina. It’s Seb. Hi,’ he says, and pauses. ‘Yes. Sorry. I know it’s late. Look, I need to see you. It’s important.’ Her voice is tinny through the handset. ‘No. I mean now. I can come to you or— No,’ he says, looking across at me. ‘It can’t wait.’ He pauses for Nina to say what she has to. ‘It’s better if we do this in person, trust me, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.’ He waits as she speaks and then shrugs at me. ‘Well, it kind of is life or death, Nina. Okay,’ he says and puts the phone on the table.

‘She’s coming now.’

My stomach lurches. Now? I haven’t seen her for over thirty years. I remember seeing her briefly a few months before Grace and I split up. Grace went to stay with her to think things through but when I went to pick her up, I got the feeling that she thought that Grace would be better off if we simply ended it there and then.

Nina had always been overprotective of Grace. I didn’t know whether that was because Grace gave off something that signalled a need for protection or whether Nina just didn’t like me.

Once I told Grace that Nina made me feel as if she’d found me under her shoe. She hates me, I said to her.

‘That’s not true! She just prefers women to men.’