‘What you really are,’ he said and then walked away.

She watched him go in disbelief. He still believed Seraphine’s assessment of her: that Bloom was also a psychopath.

35

Harry and Karene sat in silence. She wanted to reach over and take his hand, to feel him pull her close and hold her tight. She missed how he used to look at her. It broke her heart that all she saw in his eyes was confusion and a total lack of recognition. She couldn’t even detect any hint of attraction, which made her doubt that the last two years had really happened.

‘Who was tortured?’ he said eventually.

‘Is there any way of getting a drink in this place?’

Harry shook his head. ‘There’s a kitchen that probably has tea and coffee. Who was tortured, someone from the ball? Who’s the psycho?’

‘No, Harry. Marcus shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.’

Harry studied her. ‘Tell me.’

‘A week or so before the ball, Julian was attacked in his home. I’m sorry, Harry. He was murdered.’

‘Julian?’ He looked momentarily confused and then his eyes widened. ‘My Julian? My cousin?’

Karene closed her eyes and pressed her lips together.

‘Why would … how? What has Julian got to do with anything? He’s a retired engineer.’

‘We were hoping you might be able to tell us that.’

Harry’s laugh was bitter. ‘You figured a man with no memory could give you answers. I’m starting to worry about the quality of your investigators.’

Karene had heard this hard tone before. When he used to talk about Caroline and her new partner Robin. ‘It’s the biggest clue we have. He was killed a few days before the bomb attack. That has to be related given—’ She stopped because she didn’t want to say this.

Harry’s eyes watched her. ‘Given what they did to him?’

‘I don’t think you need to hear that now. You’re recovering and you’ve had a shock.’

‘It is not your job to protect me.’

Yes. Yes it is. ‘Marcus can explain it. I don’t really know the details.’

‘You can tell me the gist, though. He was tortured how?’

Karene studied the floor. The tiles had a thin coating of dust from the construction work. ‘They removed his toenails and cut off two fingers.’

‘Jesus.’

‘They wanted him to tell them something.’

‘That’s usually how torture works, yeah.’

She used to love Harry’s sarcasm but his words had no humour, only judgement.

‘How did he die?’

She met his gaze. ‘They cut his throat.’