‘Did you think: if I can’t have him, she can’t either?’

‘Do you want this coffee?’

‘I haven’t told anyone, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

I poured the coffee into the cafetiere. Look! My hands were steady.

‘I knew it, the moment they found the body,’ said Azra. ‘On the beach. You see, I know you through and through. You’re not well. I knew it the moment I met you. That’s why we were drawn to each other.’ She smiled. ‘Takes one to know one. We’re both damaged, sweetheart, but in my case I’d draw the line at murder. At least I hope I would. Who knows?’

I pushed down the plunger. The coffee wasn’t brewed but this seemed a minor thing, in the circumstances.

I poured the coffee and passed her a mug. As she raised it to her lips I noticed, with gratification, that her hands were trembling.

‘Since we’re being frank,’ she said. ‘I have to admit that I used to envy you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you had a beautiful house and garden, dummy, and two lovely children, and you took them totally for granted.’

This startled me. ‘But you didn’t want any of that. You always said you liked being free.’

‘And you had Greg.’ She put the mug down and gazed at it. ‘The love of my life.’

Outside, the street was silent. Nowadays, the whole of London was silent.

‘I knew it the first moment we met,’ Azra said. ‘At the wholefood café, remember? It was so crowded that I joined you at your table.’

‘Of course I remember.’

‘And little Lucy was refusing to eat anything and you snapped at her and Gregory lifted her onto his knee and was so sweet and patient with her, and I thought, what a lovely man, and even then I thought you didn’t deserve him.’ Her voice quickened. ‘All those years I watched you sniping at him, undermining him. No wonder the children were so unhappy and were dying to get away. No wonder he was so depressed.’

‘That’s not true! Any of it—’

‘All that time I watched you playing happy families, with your dinner parties and your allotment and we did this and we did that, and it was all a lie.’

‘It wasn’t a lie!’

‘And I’d come back to my miserable flat—’

‘I thought you loved your flat—’