‘All the same, I appreciate what you did.’ Speaking more softly, he added, ‘I’m not sure it would have ended well for me if you hadn’t got involved.’

Russ studied him for a moment, hearing the slight tremor in the older man’s voice.

‘Much ado about nothing,’ Russ said with a grin, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening in. ‘Are you . . . all right, Alistair?’

‘Oh yes, of course. Right as rain. Never better.’

Russ picked up the wine bottle from the table and topped up Alistair’s glass without asking.

‘Thanks,’ Alistair said. ‘It wasn’t what it looked like, you know. In the pool, I mean. I didn’t do what Sean—’

‘I know, buddy. I saw what happened. Ethan just needs to . . .’ Russ struggled for the right words. ‘You know, learn, mature, whatever. You can talk to him about this stuff, he’s still a young lad, isn’t he?’

Alistair took a large sip of red wine.

‘He has a lot of violence in him.’

‘Ethan?’

‘Sean.’

‘You think?’

‘We all saw it earlier, didn’t we? There’s a great deal of tension there, unresolved anxiety seeking a violent outlet.’

‘More like the booze and the heat making everyone snappy,’ Russ said.

‘Aggravating factors, perhaps.’

‘I mean, there’s violence in all of us, isn’t there? If someone pushes the right buttons.’

Alistair shook his head. ‘It shouldn’t be that close to the surface. Sean is on a perilously short fuse this week, from what I’ve observed.’

Russ drank half his beer in one long pull, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

‘Tell me something,’ he said. ‘Do you analyse everybody you meet?’

‘Occupational hazard. Sorry.’

‘So what’s your analysis of me?’

‘Well, if you really—’

‘Actually, you know what?’ Russ held a hand up, cutting him off. ‘Forget I said that; don’t think I want to know. Let’s just have a few more drinks and enjoy the evening, shall we?’

‘That sounds like a good plan.’

‘Are you coming out onto the balcony? We’d better rejoin the ladies.’

Alistair nodded reluctantly.

‘Yes,’ he said, standing up. ‘I suppose we should.’

Chapter 59

59

Thankfully, Sean didn’t react when the other two men reappeared on the far side of the balcony. I sensed him looking over, his eyes following Alistair and Russ as they sat down with drinks and snacks from the kitchen. Sean tensed, but didn’t make a move, didn’t say anything that might reignite their confrontation from earlier. After a moment he went back to the cards he was shuffling, mechanically dealing out another hand of trumps to Rowan and me.

We played the hand, and I was on the point of being knocked out of the game when Jennifer appeared on the balcony steps.

‘Ali,’ she said, ‘have you seen the boys?’

Alistair shrugged, feeding tortilla chips into his mouth.