He spoke differently, no longer with the louche drawl I remembered, more clipped as if there were no words to spare, and he held himself as if he was so tense he might never relax. Once willowy, now he was wiry, the veins on his arms too pronounced. And he didn’t look well, I thought suddenly. He was too thin and his eyes seemed to be blazing with something, though the dim light made it hard to tell. I felt a shiver. It was hard to imagine Dalziel ever growing old. In my mind, he was twenty-one for all time, gone for ever, having lived fast and died too young. I’d always thought he was like Dorian Gray. He would never age, never grow old or ugly or fat. It is better to be beautiful than to be good: Wilde had written it, Dalziel had lived it. But now, here he was. Severe and somehow rather monk-like.

Slowly it began to tumble into place. The reason Higham had tried to buy me off. And now apparently, why he had stepped in, involving himself in something on a far bigger scale.

A little girl in polka dots entered the gallery, dragging her mother behind her.

‘You’ve got little ones then, Rose?’ Dalziel watched the couple as the girl leaned precariously over the barrier. I imagined I saw a shadow of something flit across his face. ‘With the lovely James.’

For the first time, I felt anger flare. ‘You nearly destroyed him, you know.’

Dalziel bowed his head.

‘He still has nightmares now.’ I had never spoken up against Dalziel, not once during the days of Society X, not until that fateful final night, but now I could hardly bear to summon the filthy terror he’d put us through. ‘James thought he’d killed you. He’s been haunted by what happened. How could you let him think that for all this bloody time, Dalziel?’

‘I didn’t have much choice,’ he said flatly.

‘What do you mean?’

He sighed, and the thing in his pocket that he fiddled with rattled. ‘Let’s just say I haven’t been master of my own ship for some time. And I promise you, I’m haunted too. Utterly.’ He slumped back against the bench. ‘I’m ruined for all time. Though I must say, James did have a pretty good go.’

‘That’s rubbish and you know it. He just tried to stop you doing –’ I paused – ‘doing whatever it was you were about to do.’

We sat there for a second in quiet contemplation. Did either of us even know what Dalziel had planned?