‘She’s still playing her part, but has absolutely no idea where you are at the moment, although she never stops asking.’

‘And what do you tell her?’

‘I let slip that you were last seen in Buenos Aires and had no plans to return to England in the near future.’

‘Do you think she fell for it?’

‘I can’t be certain, but Lamont assures me that’s what she tells anyone who enquires. And no doubt will continue to do so if she doesn’t want her monthly allowance to dry up.’

‘But surely Warwick and Hawksby must have worked out by now that I wasn’t burnt at the stake in Geneva.’

‘Indeed they have,’ said Booth Watson. ‘But Lamont informs me that you’ve fallen off their radar.’

‘How can you be sure of that, when he’s no longer on their mailing list?’

‘Don’t forget he still has someone who is, and she keeps the ex-Superintendent well-informed of everything Warwick is up to. It doesn’t come cheap, but at least it guarantees you a no claims bonus on your life policy. Lamont tells me your file, MF/CR/76748/88, is gathering dust in the Met’s general registry office at Hayes in Middlesex, where dead cases go to be buried, and are rarely exhumed.’

‘That’s good to hear,’ said Miles, ‘because I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life locked up here, although I won’t come out of hiding until you give me the all-clear.’

‘Lamont’s most useful function is to keep confirming that you’re past history. However, it might be wise to lie low for a little longer.’

‘But not for too much longer,’ said Miles. ‘Even heaven on earth becomes a prison after a while. And what’s the point of a private jet, a yacht, a Swiss bank account and a pile of cash stashed in a vault in Mayfair if I’m trapped here?’

‘Don’t forget that Mayfair takes care of Christina, Lamont and his associate, as well as any other incidental expenses.’

‘Including you.’

Booth Watson shrugged his shoulders.

‘Perhaps the time has come to cut down on those expenses by removing Christina from the payroll,’ suggested Miles.

‘I wouldn’t recommend that,’ said Booth Watson firmly. ‘She’d go straight to her friend Mrs Warwick and tell her you’re very much alive, which would give her husband the chance to blow the dust off your file.’

‘And we wouldn’t want that,’ said Miles. ‘Not that they’d ever find me, even if they did discover I’d flown to Barcelona that night.’

‘It may be the case that you’re isolated and well-hidden,’ said Booth Watson, leaning forward, finally unable to resist a chocolate biscuit. ‘But if they were to find out that Ricardo Rossi isn’t a dress designer, but a criminal on the run, this palace would become a bunker, surrounded by an army, making it impossible for you to escape.’

‘They still wouldn’t catch up with me,’ boasted Miles. ‘Let me show you why.’ He stood up and marched out of the drawing room, assuming that Booth Watson would be a pace behind. When he reached the end of the corridor, he unlocked a door and entered what was clearly his study. He sat down at a large partners desk while Booth Watson stared up at a life-size portrait hanging on the wall behind him.