Delores clenched her teeth and got to her knees, steadying her good hand on the desk as she hauled herself back up into a drunken standing position.

‘Look, I know that I don’t want to hurt you, Max.’ He started opening the drawers in her desk. ‘But what I don’t know is if you feel the same way … ah, there it is.’ He held up a slim little handgun and then tucked it into the pocket of his pyjama bottoms.

‘We’ve got a lot to catch up on, yes? Sit.’ He tossed the device he’d been holding into the corner of the room and pressed down hard on Delores’s shoulders, forcing her into her chair as she tried to take deep breaths and cradled her hand. Moses loomed over her, one hand on the armrest.

‘I said sit!’ Moses whipped his head round to Thea.

She clumsily fumbled her way back into the chair.

He started to slowly rock Delores from side to side in her swivel chair.

‘Maxie, Maxie, Maxie, what did you do, Maxie? With my tech?’ He spat out the word “my”. ‘Dream a little dream of me. Of you. And I did. All the time, Maxie, I was drugged up to my eyeballs, I dreamt of you. You were always in my fucking head and I couldn’t get you out of it.’

He started to spin the chair in lazy circles, keeping it moving the whole time he spoke, Delores clutching on with her good hand. He looked alert, aware, manic almost, but not crazed.

‘You did it to yourself!’ Delores managed, paling at every jolt.

Moses slammed his palm against the chair back and it jerked to a halt. He bent over her again, little veins standing out on his head, mistakes on the phrenology tattoo markings.

‘Yes, I did. I did. But then what did you do, Maxie? What did you do? You see, I thought you loved me. You’d left me and we disagreed on the tech but I always knew you loved me—’

‘I did! I do!’

‘You locked me up and took my life’s work. Not a loving gesture, that, is it?’

‘To look after you! I needed money to keep you safe.’ She held her crushed fingers in her good hand, letting her hair swing down and hide half her face. ‘What else could I have done, Moses? Come on, tell me! You left me. You chose. You chose that bloody tech over me!’