‘I don’t know, maybe Nina told Grace, and she told him,’ he says, reddening further.

‘But Nina said she was sure he didn’t come to the wake. She seemed annoyed at him for missing it – as well as the funeral.’

He cocks his head at me, waiting for what is next.

‘You invented that earring, didn’t you?’ I say. ‘I didn’t see an earring up there by the box.’

‘What? I was trying to get her to confess,’ he says. ‘We know she took it. You said it yourself.’

‘You’re not working, are you, Seb?’

‘What?’

‘I mean, every time I knock on the door, you’re here to answer it. Whatever the time of day. You were even here when the police came. To arrest me. How are you always at home? Even now. Why aren’t you getting ready for work?’

‘I’ve had some days off. What are you getting at?’

He stands now and I do too, but I have two inches on him, and these bones. ‘Days off from where?’ I say.

‘What?’

‘Where do you work?’ I press.

‘You know where – Deutsche.’

I shake my head. He opens his mouth as if to speak but thinks better of it. ‘I checked. Or, at least, I got someone to look it up at the library. You don’t work there.’

He looks at me, his face red with anger. He makes a move towards me and then stops and holds up his palms.

‘How long has it been?’ I say. He considers the question and then sits back down with a sigh.

‘Three years and eight months,’ he says, deflated. Any fight he may have had in him has gone. ‘The pressure to make decent numbers year on year … But I don’t need to tell you about all that, do I?’ He pauses, as if on the edge of tears. ‘And you never came back. It was just there, burning a hole in my roof for twenty-five years.’

‘Seb …’

‘What would you have done?’ he asks, desperation cracking his voice.

‘Not that,’ I say. ‘I wouldn’t have stolen.’

He stares at the carpet. I wait for him to finish accounting for himself.

‘It was just a few thousand at first. Enough to feed the mortgage, pay the bills. And then the months went by and nobody was hiring after the banking crisis.’ He shakes his head. ‘It made sense to pay the mortgage off. It made sense, Xander, you must see that. The money was just up there, getting devalued when the dollar fell. And some of it had even begun to rot.’

I sit down again.

‘Go on, ask what you want to ask me,’ he says.

‘No. I know it wasn’t you who killed her.’

‘Only just though, eh?’ he says.

‘You lied to me.’

‘I never lied to you,’ he says bleakly.

I let out an incredulous laugh.