‘Now I like him. What he’s lying about?’

‘There’s a weird part. Have you ever heard of a writer called Bion of Smyrna?’

‘He was one of the bucolic poets. In Berlin I shared an apartment with a philologist who used to shoot amphetamines into his feet. Nice guy, all the same.’

‘My father Ian concocted a play and claimed it was written by this Bion. Dad was supposedly the translator of the text. He got exposed, in the end, and lost his diplomatic job in Sydney. I just discovered this story. I don’t know if the Bion thing is connected to the franchise. But maybe it is. I think Lucky knew my father.’

‘Or maybe Bion of Smyrna is a separate story. How do you know Lucky was friends with your father? That would explain the painting.’

‘I’m not sure they were friends. I asked Lucky if he knew my father and he said no. But he’s lying. Sometimes you can tell when a person is not telling the truth. And sometimes you can’t. For example, Michael was fucking Therese.’

‘Keep asking Lucky about your dad. Why would he lie?’

‘Because he’s hiding something!’ Emily said. It made her furious: her father was behind the locked door in Lucky. ‘Why do you keep looking at the bathroom?’

‘I need a shower.’

‘So do I,’ said Emily. ‘We could shower together?’

Liam looked at Emily, tilted his head. ‘Are you joking?’

They undressed in haste and forgot the shower and she’d hardly taken off her underwear when Liam pressed himself against her, kissing her neck, and she pushed his head down towards her groin. She groaned; he was good at this, better than Michael. Then, without much trouble, he found a condom in his suitcase, while she positioned herself on the bed, while her hand went down between her legs: she was wet. He grabbed her hips, drew her pelvis against his, and they began slamming against each other, his fingers digging into her hair, her grasping handfuls of his arse. At one point he looked at her, as if surprised: yes, this really was Emily.

Afterwards, they lay a little distance apart on the king-size bed, the condom slowly working itself off Liam’s softening cock.

He said: ‘Let’s get dressed. There’s something else we need to talk about.’

2.

She had wanted sex. She had wanted escape. To use her body, to make it work again. Something had switched off in Emily, and she wanted it back on.