‘Homemade mango sorbet, madam?’ he said to Iris.

‘Oh, thank you, but I didn’t order any,’ said Iris.

‘It’s with our compliments,’ said the friendly young man and Iris raised her eyebrows. ‘Well, thank you very much,’ she declared.

Amused, Kate ate hers then decided to swim. Iris declined, saying she’d just rest her eyes instead.

As Kate struck out in the water, she thought about what lay ahead. She was still acutely aware her plan had a high chance of failure and part of her was wondering if her impulsive decision to exchange her luxury holiday for another luxury holiday was a mistake. Despite the fact the airline tickets were non-refundable, she was aware she’d spent half a deposit on a flat on a whim. A highly ambitious whim, in the hope that she might be able to somehow persuade an official at Government House to give her confidential information about an offshore company called Foxgold Ltd. It was unlikely – highly unlikely – but without any other options, and emotional from the news about Arnie, she’d cashed in her chips and gone for it.

The office would be open tomorrow and she planned to go there first thing and – what? Beg? Cajole? Trick? At that moment, she had no idea. Kate flopped over on her back and the sound of the gentle waves just a few metres away momentarily disappeared as her ears submerged in the water. She floated, gazing up at the clear blue sky, feeling the warm island breeze brush over her in a muffled world. It felt surreal. People like her didn’t come to places like this, and she’d somehow stumbled down this rabbit hole and was lost, out of her depth. She was in a dream, and in dreams you had very little control over your actions, your fate. Unexplained things happened, and reality was snatched away from you when you least expected it. Unsettled, she righted herself again, wanted to hear the relatively stabling sounds of her surroundings.

There was one clear, hard fact: this was the end of the line. If nothing came out of this trip, she’d have to quit. She had no other choice; she would have exhausted all her options. This cold dose of reality propelled her out of the pool and back to her sunbed. As she lay there, drying off in the sun, she sensed Iris waking next to her.

‘Have I been asleep?’ asked Iris, blinking. ‘Or am I still dreaming? Oh, isn’t this place magnificent! Warm, though,’ she added, fanning herself, ‘warm, but magnificent.’

Another orange-shirted man came up to her. ‘A chilled towel, madam?’

Iris stared. ‘Pardon?’

‘To cool you off.’ He handed her a folded rectangle of fluffy white cotton.

‘It’s cold!’ she exclaimed, laughing, and draped it over her.

‘Yes.’

‘How are they chilled?’

‘We refrigerate them, madam.’

‘You put the towels in the fridge? Who’d have thought it? Well, it’s very nice. Just what I needed.’ She smiled as her towel-bearer moved on. ‘What a lovely man,’ she mused. ‘How’s the water?’ she said to Kate.