The sea glistened in the sunshine beyond the boats. When I’d decided to come back to Florida for a while, I’d asked to be put in the Sarasota office because I wanted to be close to the sea. I’d thought it would remind me of Inishowen, but I couldn’t have imagined how different it would be, a marina full of yachts instead of fishing trawlers. The sea today was mirror-still like a lake; it looked as if you could walk across it without any divine power. I’d never seen the sea in Inishowen look like that.

I put my hands in the pockets of my trousers as we walked. I’d lost weight while I’d been here. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the heat. We tried to stick to the shade as we walked, from palm tree to palm tree, but my shirt still felt damp; a trickle of sweat worked its way down my back. I’d never mastered the art of looking cool in this weather and I suspected I never would. In the air conditioning I wanted a jumper and each time I left a building I was shocked anew by the heat. I ran my fingers through my damp hair.

Mitch looked at me curiously. “You all right?”

I smiled at him. “Just hot.”

Mitch had been there for me when I’d worked for the firm more than a decade ago, just after my sister had died. I’d told him everything then and he’d been a huge support. This time around, things had remained strictly professional between us, but I was sure he suspected I had my reasons for coming back even for a short while, that there was something I hadn’t shared with him.

We walked past the statue at the marina, a rather kitsch sculpture of a sailor kissing a nurse based on the famous photograph taken in New York at the announcement of the Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War. The picture was called V-J Day in Times Square, the statue Unconditional Surrender. Every time I passed it, I thought of Molloy.

I’d been in Florida for six months. It had been just what I needed but the respite was about to come to an end. Reality was about to seep in.

Chapter Two