But the world would be so terribly empty without him. A world I wouldn’t recognise, since my waking moments were crowded with his care. Were the things he needed within his reach? Had he been drinking, had he been sick? Were there hazards around him that I could anticipate? A curled dog he might trip over, hot water he might spill? It had seemed never-ending. But it would end.

I wanted him to make it back to Sydney, to feel his wife’s presence in the air. I could not know with certainty where that memory lived for him. A grave is only a marker, and the house was long since ashes in the soil. The places she had walked in her solitude were known only to her. But anything that remained for him would be in Sydney. God knows, it was not here.

The narrow foot-track led sharply upwards, past a fallen obelisk that crossed the fault lines. I stepped up and over, and found myself in a narrow chamber that the rock had walled in. There was only the sky above and granite spearing up all around me to form a nest of rock. I stood there a moment, unsure which way to go next, and then I was conscious of a movement behind me.

I turned. The man stood there: tall, uninjured, composed. His hands were by his sides and there was half a smile on his face.

‘Sweetheart,’ he said softly. ‘You came to me. I knew you would.’

I did not answer him: terror closed my throat.

‘This is the point, you remember, the point at the centre of the spiral. No further forward motion is possible because the spiral has exhausted itself.’ He gestured at the enclosing rocks with both palms by his hips, and I saw what he was carrying. ‘So. This is the point.’

His left hand held a large knife: the flensing knife they’d given Srinivas. The hand was smeared with blood, up to the wrist and staining the shirt cuff that hung down out of a loose roll on his forearm. Specks of it dotted the side of his shirt where it clung to his body.

‘Good heavens, I’m worrying you. Is it the knife?’

He stepped forward and I edged back. He kept coming and I retreated further, then found I had my back against the rock face, with nowhere further to go. My whole body was tensed but my mind had nothing to offer. I could not believe that dying might be so uncomplicated.

He stood only inches from my chest now. He raised his right hand, unbloodied, extended it to me.

‘Give me your hand.’

My eyes scanned all around me. The sun was down now and there were shadows that offered refuge.

‘Be calm. Please,’ he said.