The paper that she had written on was fine and heavy, the sort we had many years ago for correspondence but no longer use because there’s no call for delicate and mannered words now. She was starting at a new school, and she told me about her teachers and some of the girls in her class. They’re going to be studying The Great Gatsby later in the year, she said, so she’ll be putting the copy that I gave her to good use. She had enclosed a photograph of herself in her new uniform, and I looked at it again in the afternoon light. It was green with gold detailing – so much cheerier than the heavy navy blue on our side. I found that somehow comforting.

Fellowman arranged it all, of course, in return for the name of the doctor in Los Angeles who supplied the drugs to Lorelei. I had expected at least some sort of reaction when I explained that the exit visa was for Hazel, not me, but he remained quite impassive, quite inscrutable, and I had the impression that this was the real Ian Fellowman, not the one I had seen at Mansford Hall. After all, it fits better with what he does. I should probably have guessed earlier, but, what with everyone else playing games, it’s not surprising that one passed me by.

It was from him that I discovered Charles had listened to the telephone conversation between Nick and Adam Cutter the day before Lorelei’s death. Adam, drunk as usual, had told Nick that Lorelei claimed to be carrying his child; and he asked if it were true they had been having an affair. Nick had only cursed her and slammed the telephone down without answering. That was what Adam had considered a confession. Anyone else would have thought Lorelei’s claim to be no more substantial than her other stories but Charles took it to heart.

Such a fool he was for her. How she could make us doubt ourselves.

So the next morning, before he went to work, Charles brought Lorelei some Champagne to toast their emigration to Ireland. While she wasn’t looking, he dosed it with something to end her pregnancy. Common rue from a greengrocer’s, it seems. He found it detailed in one of the practice textbooks. He hadn’t wanted to kill her; the opposite, really – he just wanted the life together that she had promised him.

Fellowman told me all this after the Secs told him. They had found Charles sitting in his flat. I imagine he just wanted someone to listen to him.