She sits but does it by perching at the edge. She makes no move to remove her blood-red coat. It remains draped across her sharp shoulders. I pull my chair back to make room for her but she’s not looking at me at all.

‘Well?’ she says, taking her coffee from Seb.

‘Well,’ he says, drawing breath. ‘It’s to do with Xander really.’ They both look at me. ‘How to begin?’ he says. ‘Some years back, Xander left some cash here for safe-keeping. After he and Grace—’ He coughs when he sees her face. ‘Anyway. It’s missing.’

She absorbs the information but says nothing. She takes a slow sip and puts her cup down softly. Then she raises her eyebrows, waiting.

‘Nina?’ I say irritably.

‘What?’ she says without looking up.

‘Did you take the money?’ I say.

‘What money?’ She moves in her seat.

Whatever coldness or indifference she once felt for me has deepened over the years.

‘There were two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In the house. It’s gone. All of it.’ Seb is getting irate.

Nina blinks at him and pulls out a packet of thin cigarettes from her bag and lights one. The scent of her hangs in the air.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t even seen him,’ she says, pointing her cigarette at me, ‘for thirty years. And I think I’d remember a quarter of a million pounds in cash.’

‘Dollars,’ I say but she looks away, saying nothing.

‘Nina?’ Seb says, bristling.

‘What?’

‘The money. Where is it? It’s important.’

A sense of dread grows in me. I worry that if she doesn’t have it, then there’ll be no way of finding it again. And that could be the end for me.

‘You knew I had the money. I know Grace spoke to you about it,’ Seb says. ‘We had an argument about it. You wanted to give it straight to Grace.’

She wriggles in her seat and then suddenly stands, pushing her chair back with a screech. ‘What’s this all about, Sebastian? You can’t have called me all the way here for this.’

Seb stands and then sits back down again. He looks at me for permission but I haven’t caught up with him. ‘We need it, Nina. Xand needs it. Now,’ he says, pulling his sleeves back.

‘Well, I’m sorry you’ve wasted your time. I don’t know anything about the money. I never even laid eyes on it. And then I left you – and this house. And you know exactly what I took with me,’ she says and draws her coat together as if to leave.

Before she can get to her feet, Seb puts a hand out. ‘Nina,’ he says, and then I see that he is holding up an earring. It swings in his fingers.

‘What’s that?’ she says, and we both look at Seb.