‘Is she the half-Japanese one?’

‘Yes,’ Georgie stammered. It probably hadn’t occurred to her that Priest would recall a detail like that. He had only seen Li once but he never forgot a face.

‘Just be careful,’ were his final words before hanging up.

*

Jessica sat on the other side of his desk, waiting patiently for the call to finish. She looked fantastic, in a black and white striped top and pencil skirt, reducing Priest to his default position of ineptitude when she was around. He was wearing jeans that were sporting an ink stain near the pocket.

‘What on earth have you got yourself in to this time, Charlie?’ Her eyes were narrowed, suspicious.

‘Oh, nothing. Just a libel action.’

‘If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were just sending Georgie off to investigate a crime scene. How does that fit into a libel action?’

Priest decided to change the subject. ‘Tea?’ Jessica rolled her eyes.

‘And let me guess,’ she said drily. ‘The girl you were with the other night was also part of this libel action?’

Priest put his hands down, the game was up. He really didn’t have any comeback prepared. ‘If I said yes, would you believe me?’

‘It’s none of my business, Charlie. We’re not together, are we? You can do whatever you want. So can I.’

Priest felt a twang of guilt, and a thud of jealousy. So can I.

‘It’s not what it looked like,’ he said, trying to be delicate.

Her eyes were fierce – she had come here for an explanation and he didn’t have one. She never just dropped by the office. This was important, and he was making a hash of it.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’m not good with things like this.’

‘If I knew what this was, I might be able to agree with you.’

If he could just say it. It seemed so simple, and yet so impossible. He just needed to be clear on what he wanted, what he felt. But all he could think about was his marriage to Dee, what a horrendous failure it had been, how catastrophically he had been emotionally wounded. The scar was deep, and scabbed. It wasn’t the trauma of divorce – plenty of less durable people had been through that and survived. It was the terrifying thought that, in a world where nothing seemed totally real, his feelings for Jessica were nothing more than a simulation, like his feelings for Dee had been.

So he pushed people away. It was what he did, how he coped. If he never got close to anyone, he’d never confirm the truth.

But there something else this time. Jessica Ellinder was different.

‘I don’t work very well,’ he said slowly, watching her face for a reaction. ‘I’m damaged.’