‘I’ll be fine, Seb,’ I say, waiting for him to look at me.

He draws smoothly to a halt. ‘Can I wait for you here?’

‘No. Really. I’ll be fine.’

He takes a deep breath. ‘If you’re sure,’ he says. ‘Red door.’

I get out and walk to the well-kept front garden. Although it is small I know that in this part of London, Dulwich Village, the price of this cottage would be eye-watering. She is obviously still working in finance or something else lucrative. My heart skips a little as I rattle the knocker. I wait. The evening begins to gather darkness around my shoulders. I shiver in the cold until the door opens.

Nina appears in the doorway, hair glossy and sharp. She’s dressed as if she’s just back from work. Navy dress in a thick woollen fabric – bouclé, is it?

‘Nina.’

She sighs, taking me in. ‘What do you want, Xander?’

‘I need to talk you.’

‘If it’s about the money, I have nothing more to say to you,’ she says, and crosses her arms.

‘I didn’t kill her, Nina,’ I say softly.

‘Didn’t you? You might as well have.’

‘Nina, I don’t know what she told you, but I did not leave Grace. She left me, and it tore me apart.’

She shakes her head in supressed fury and turns to shut the door on me.

‘Wait. Okay. I know you won’t accept what I say. That’s fine. I get that. She’s your friend.’

‘Was.’ She’s glaring at me. Willing me to challenge her.

‘Was. I’d be surprised if you weren’t loyal to her. But I’m not here about that. I need to know what happened to the money.’

She pauses in the act of shutting the door.

‘I don’t care whether you believe this or not, but I don’t have the money,’ she says, a hand on the door.

My heart sinks at this. ‘Nina. If there were a way I could do this without asking you for anything at all, believe me, I would. But I can’t, Nina. I can’t do it without you. They’re charging me with murder, Nina. I didn’t do it. They think I killed her for the money.’

As I say it I feel my head swimming with the pressure of it all. I want to cry in frustration, make her somehow do the right thing.

She looks at me for a second and then closes the door. ‘Bye, Xander.’

I stare at the shut door. I’m finished. But just as I am about to walk away, the door opens again.

‘Look. If it matters, I know you didn’t kill her,’ she says. ‘You haven’t got the balls. Sorry – that didn’t come across as I meant it.’

I nod at her and smile a little. ‘Well, the police think I have.’