‘I’m surprised he has no other symptoms. He’s lucid and articulate and if you had no idea he’d lost the last few years of his memory I don’t think you’d guess it.’

‘Oh, man, you think he’s faking.’ Jameson’s childish grin irritated her.

‘I didn’t say that.’

Karene sat silently now.

‘I’m simply observing that if someone did this, as they appear to have done, it is a very, very accomplished piece of surgery. And that doesn’t fit with your useless guns for hire theory, does it?’

Jameson’s eyes widened a touch and then he smiled and pointed her way. ‘And that’s why we pay her the big bucks.’

Ten minutes later they were in the car heading south. Karene had not protested. She knew as well as them that their time with Harry was done for this visit at least.

‘What the hell?’ said Karene after the buzz of her phone. She held out the open email application for Bloom to see.

From: ANONYMOUS11:00

Subject: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king

From: ANONYMOUS11:01

Subject: Tick tock tick tock

Bloom read the messages aloud to Jameson then gave the phone back to Karene.

‘And this is a helpful person, is it?’ Karene said.

‘What does that even mean?’ said Jameson.

Bloom thought about it. She wasn’t sure. It was cryptic and, no doubt, intentionally so. Was the reference to blindness related to Harry’s memory loss or to their inability to uncover what was actually going on? And who was the one-eyed man: them or whoever was behind the emails?

38

Augusta sat at her kitchen island and scrolled through her case notes. She started with Harry’s history. If his memory had been wiped on purpose, what had he done in the past four years that could be relevant?