‘Yes – I suppose that’s possible,’ Spoder said, apparently not too interested.

‘Tell me about the man Jessa moved to Hames with,’ I said.

Spoder re-engaged with his information.

‘You won’t be surprised to learn that his name was Antterland,’ he said. Amongst the relative flood of new information I had been absorbing, it had not yet in fact occurred to me that I still did not know why the twin brothers had that name, but I said nothing. If Spoder had not telephoned when he did I would have guessed anyway, but he was a long way ahead of me here.

He went on: ‘Antterland was not from Dearth – it’s not clear where exactly he came from. Somewhere else in the Archipelago, obviously. He travelled around a great deal, maintained an air of intrigue about his doings, was secretive about his meetings and sometimes used false names. His real name was Raffe Antterland, and he was a businessman of sorts, a self-styled entrepreneur, constantly setting up schemes and companies, then selling them or using the equity to raise more capital.

‘He was about ten years older than Jessa. They met while he was negotiating a string of business deals in Dearth. He seems to have dazzled her. It must have been love at first sight, because within a few weeks of meeting him Jessa packed up her life and moved with him to Salay. After her divorce finally came through she and Antterland married. They set up a home on Salay Hames. As far as I can tell this was the same house in which Lew was later killed.’

I tried to imagine what Enver Jeksid must have gone through during this period. He and Jessa were so young, still in their early twenties. It was a sad story: a recent marriage, sudden abandonment and desertion, removal of the children to a distant island. Presumably the relationship turned toxic. She had met and married another man, a business operative with plenty of money. She changed her name. Perhaps Raffe Antterland seemed glamorous, a bit of a cad but attractive with it, high on his success, a deal-maker who used other people’s money.

‘When were the boys given Antterland’s name?’ I said.

‘I haven’t been able to date that exactly,’ Spoder said. ‘It appears to have been soon after she remarried.’

‘And was Jeksid a Dearth cop at this time?’