‘Because, sweetie pie, the papier mâché will dissolve quickly, leaving only my clothes. A mannequin is plastic and full of air and would float. It’s too risky that it might eventually be found and someone would put two and two together. We’ll weigh this model-me down with stuff like sugar or flour which will also dissolve, or random heavy objects which will sink. The water’s several hundred metres deep where we are tomorrow evening – I’ve checked – so it’s unlikely anything will ever be found. But belt and braces and all that – better to be safe. And anyway,’ I stroke it fondly, ‘even if she is a bit scary, I’ve quite enjoyed making her. Bit like being a child again. I’m going to call her Anna.’ I don’t tell him the significance of the name. I don’t have conversations like that with Rick. Or, indeed, with anyone since I stopped that pointless therapy as soon as I was allowed to make my own decisions.

He pulls me against him and kisses me hard. ‘Some kind of wholesome childhood you had, if you spent your time making things out of – what did you call it – paper machine? I’ve never done anything like this before. My grandma who brought me up never bothered with this kind of thing. Too busy drinking at the local pub. Seems like magic to me, being able to make something stiff and hard out of paper, water and flour. And speaking of stiff and hard,’ he leers, pressing himself against me in the darkness.

I wriggle away. ‘Not now,’ I scold, ‘we haven’t got time. We need to get on with this. I’ve brought this white dress I thought Anna could wear – white is most likely to show up best in the darkness and it’s got these floaty panels too – give us a better chance of someone seeing it when she falls past the bar.’

He nods. ‘Nice one. I’m going to roll up, erm, Anna in a balcony awning to get it up to the top deck. If anyone sees me, I’ll say I’m replacing a damaged one. And I’ve knocked out the security cameras in the relevant places already – the system’s so fucked that half of them aren’t working anyway so it was easy enough to do.’ He pauses. ‘You’ve done all the paperwork, like you said?’