I said, “If I had a room, it’d be like this. The mid-sixties has always been one of my favorite periods.”

“Right. Want a glass of wine now?”

“If that’s okay. We were introduced, but in case you’ve forgotten, the name’s Leo.”

He said, “Matte. Why would someone your age be interested in the sixties?”

“Must be something to do with my parents. And you?”

He was fixing drinks for both of us. “Those days people knew how to have a laugh. ’Cept I was the wrong age.”

His manner of speaking gave me the impression that English wasn’t his first language, but it was impossible to tell where he was from. I’d have been inclined to say, if asked, “from nowhere.”

“Was this your father’s boat?”

His body stiffened. “Why the hell should it be?”

“I’m asking, is it a family possession?”

He said, “I hate it when people suggest I haven’t worked, that I’m only a rich playboy. I do play at things—I play at being a playboy—but it’s a vacation, not a vocation.”

“Sorry,” I said. “You wouldn’t be the first to think of me as a fool. I’ll get out.”

He came after me and pulled me back roughly. “Wait right here. You have to stay now.”

“Why?”

“I recognize you from somewhere.”

“How could we have met? I’m neither a teacher nor student, only a cleaner at the Center on the island.”

“Ever been a builder?”

“No.”

“Coach driver?”

“Nope.”

“I have seen you,” he continued, screwing up his eyes. “It’s not your face that I particularly recognize.” He walked around me then, as if I were a sculpture. “It’ll come back to me.”

“Are you sure?”

“I might look like a hairy idiot but I’ve got perfect vision and an excellent memory.”

He was making me nervous, more nervous, even, than Patricia. He chopped out some generous lines of coke and offered me one.

“Thanks,” I said.

He was snorting one himself when there was a knock on the door. It was one of his Thai staff. Matte went to him and then, to my surprise, turned to me.

“I’m being told that someone called Patricia is looking for you.”

“Oh, Christ.”

Matte laughed, and said to the man, “He can’t be found anywhere at the moment. He’s indisposed.” He shut the door. “She’s after you, eh? Wants your body.”

“Maybe I should appreciate her appreciation more. There’ll be a time when no one will want to jump my old bones.”

“The one thing I’ve never wanted is to get old, to see your own skin blotted and withered.”

“Why is that?”

“I’m from a big family. As a kid, I hated grandmothers, aunts, old men and women kissing me. Their lips, mouths, breath over me—makes me nearly lose me lunch to think of it.”