CA: Not really. What I do now is psychology. Sort of. In an unlicensed, rogue sort of way . . . That came out sounding bad, didn’t it?

DC: And the money for . . . er . . . dreamhacking?

CA: It’s not what you’d think given the size of the alternative-health community. The trouble is, dreamwork is time-intensive and it has to be done in person. The only way to make money is to charge people a lot. O has been trying to get me clients. She’s posh and has loads of contacts. But it’s not easy money. People want fast results or they’re off to NLP and quantum healing instead.

DC: So you’re trying to tell me there’s no money in what you do. Why don’t I believe you?

CA: Maybe you’re a naturally suspicious person.

RP: [unintelligible]

DC: Is there something you want to say, Roman?

RP: Sorry. That wasn’t a laugh, honestly. Frog in my throat.

CA: At least I’m employed. And I’m registered with the Council of Alternative Therapies. I pay National Insurance. You can check.

DC: We did. So you invented this profession for yourself.

CA: I didn’t have a choice. I got sacked from my temp job.

DC: And why were you made redundant?

CA: Sleeping on the job. But I couldn’t help it. I was ill.

DC: Your medical records show that you applied for sickness benefit and were denied. You claimed narcolepsy.

CA: It was because of the medical trial. My mate Shandy contracted typhoid so she could pay back her decorating-addiction debt. She said it was easy money.

DC: You contracted typhoid for money?

RP: What’s a decorating addiction?

CA: I didn’t contract typhoid, Shandy did. Mine was this other experimental infection, I’ll just look up the name in my files while we’re talking. Bear with me. So, Shandy’s decorating addiction. She gets paid now to decorate, but before she was hired at BigSky she racked up a lot of debt buying virtual furniture. She’s really hooked. She has a full-time unicorn to stop her being run over by cyclists.

RP: So she’s a virtual-space designer.

CA: Trainee, but she gets a wage. It was through Excelsior-Barking’s nanotech department. They were compensating trial participants. The medical study, I mean, not the unicorn. I’m still looking for the name of the infection, sorry if my eyes are rolling back. I know it’s not my best look.

RP: It’s OK, it suits you.

CA: Shandy says I look like a dead body.

DC: We can get the files later. We will need specifics about this work you did. Not Shandy or Shandy’s unicorn. You.

CA: Sorry, I’m a little disorganised. But hey, I’m just wondering what this has to do with . . . with what happened to Melodie Tan. I mean, why are you so interested in me?

RP: You’d be surprised how important these little details can be. The more you tell us, the better we can do our job.