Okoro made a noise, like he didn’t believe him. ‘I’m sitting here trying to draft out some submissions for Her Honour Judge Peters’s indulgence tomorrow morning explaining why we want an adjournment and I don’t have anything positive to say other than we think Simeon Ali is dead.’

‘We don’t think he’s dead. He is dead.’

‘Peters is a bitch, Priest. She might just say if he’s dead and our case hinges on his evidence then that’s it – pack up and go home. The Real Byte to pay Elias’s costs, subject to whatever the insurers have to say. She might even question if a fair trial can take place.’

‘I’ll appeal her.’

‘Sure you will,’ said Okoro. ‘But do you think our clients have the stomach for that? Doubt the insurers will want to back it.’

Priest swore again under his breath. He knew Okoro was right. And what was an adjournment going to achieve anyway? Delay the inevitable – Elias had already won. He could see Alexia Elias’s smug face in his mind’s eye.

‘Simeon was murdered,’ Priest exhaled. ‘The defence want time to understand the circumstances surrounding his death and to evaluate the merits of their position in light of it. Go with that for now.’

Okoro sighed in a way that suggested he was unimpressed. ‘All right. I’ll try that.’

Priest hung up, pressed the half-smoked cigarette into an ashtray on the patio table and went back down to the kitchen. He rummaged around in the cupboards and found a tin of pea soup, which he poured into a pan and started to heat on the hob. It would suffice for breakfast this morning.

He sat down with the soup and took out the piece of paper he had extracted from Elinor last night and placed it next to the bowl. On the other side, he placed the photograph of the mysterious boy. He had read Elinor’s note over and over again last night. Just two names, father and son. Now, he was convinced that she was probably right, although he remained sceptical of her intentions. The boy shared the same reptilian jawline and sunken eyes as his father. Even the mulish way he stood bore a similarity.

Alexia and Dominque Elias had never had children. Not together. But this boy was sure as hell Dominique’s product.

‘Hello, Julian,’ Priest muttered. ‘Now where do you fit into all of this?’

*

Okoro took a generous gulp of coffee and stared at the blank computer screen, dejected. His fingers hovered over the keyboard but he felt devoid of inspiration. It was all very well pleading for an adjournment but, even if Peters was feeling charitable and gave it to them, The Real Byte would be ordered to pay Elias’s wasted costs. Hagworth’s brief fee alone would exceed fifty thousand.

The insurers aren’t going to like that.