‘Donato has been pursuing the idea that Antonio paid for the suite on one of the upper floors and then killed Melodie. I found this to be a bit flimsy if it was premeditated, because one of the payments was routed through a Russian account before it went into Antonio’s bank and the other just came straight out of his debit card. If anything, he would need to be more careful with the second suite because it was then that matters were getting serious. Why withdraw his own money so openly?’

‘I told you it had to be a set-up,’ I said.

‘And I listened, didn’t I? I also thought about what you said about proximity and dreamhacking, and I looked to see if another person of interest could have been on the same floor.’

‘You already told me there was no one.’

He nods. ‘There wasn’t. There isn’t. But I wasn’t thinking vertically, was I? So yesterday I looked again and guess who booked the room directly below the Windsor Suite the night Melodie died?’

He’s watching me carefully. This is going to be a bombshell.

‘Look, mate, I just woke up.’

‘Martin Elstree. Your solicitor.’

‘He’s not my solicitor!’

‘Right . . . So you’ve sacked him?’

‘No, I just—’ It’s getting hard to keep track of my lies. Fuck it, may as well be honest. I fold my arms over my chest and glare at Roman. ‘I never hired him, he’s a former client and I dislike him a lot. I was just playing along because I don’t like being interrogated and asked to turn over my dream records while you guys keep me in the dark.’ Shit. And O says she didn’t hire him. Eww.

‘I’m not keeping you in the dark now, am I? Elstree is definitely connected to O, and so are you. What do you know about the relationship between those two?’

I shrug, thinking. ‘He’s been working on an IP case for her. She didn’t say what.’

‘Was he, now? I wish you’d told me this sooner.’

‘Why? Where are you going with this?’

‘Well, I checked around and ostensibly Elstree was in the hotel for a meeting with some BigSky lawyers. You know, that’s how BigSky like to work – low overheads, hard to trace what they’re really up to. So they were supposed to be finalizing the arrangements on Bernard Zborowski’s right to take his IP to Little Bird.’

‘The coincidences mount, don’t they? Was Bernard there?’

‘No. Just the lawyers. But it bothers me that Elstree was in close proximity to Mel.’

‘Me, too.’

‘Now, if Martin Elstree somehow has access to the same agent that infected you, then it is actually possible that he can dreamhack.’