‘Good,’ she said briskly. ‘I always find it helps to talk things through, don’t you? By the way, I was unaware until last night that Georgio has a twenty-five percent interest in this place. Or should I say, I have a twenty-five percent interest? I was going through Georgio’s papers and wondered exactly what Talkto Enterprises was. Then I finally found an address for it in Georgio’s phone book, and it was here. I thought this was called Brunos Escort Agency? I assume you changed the name at some point. What I am really interested in, Stephen, is where my twenty-five percent of the profits is going?’

The atmosphere in the room was electric. Stephen’s dark handsome face looked amazed. Donna relaxed in her leather chair and smiled at him charmingly.

He regained his composure. ‘The profits for Talkto are being ploughed back into the business for the first two years, Donna. Georgio will tell you that much himself. You should start realising a profit in the next few months. I will get my accountant to have the books ready for your perusal by the weekend. That’s if you insist on seeing them?’ His voice was stiff.

‘I do insist, Stephen. I insist because it seems you and my husband have a habit of starting up businesses and putting my name on them. Now the money from this enterprise would come in very handy at the moment - I need capital and I hope you are going to tell me that I have some. Because these premises in Soho can’t be cheap, the escort agency must be doing a roaring trade, and Talkto - whatever that is - must be doing OK or I would have thought the partnership would have been dissolved. So how well is it doing and what exactly is it?’

Stephen was saved from answering by Carmel arriving with the coffee. When she had left the room, Donna sugared her own coffee in silence.

‘Talkto is a phone line. You see them all the time in papers and magazines. You know the ones. “How to cope with bereavement” or “How to cope with arthritis”. We have been gradually setting up a small library of different lines; they are going quite well in fact. We also do sex lines. You know: “How to achieve orgasm”, “What to do if your husband’s impotent”. They are the bigger moneyspinners, I admit, but they are perfectly legal and they provide a service.’

Donna smiled. ‘So that’s what Talkto is. How does the setup work?’

Stephen shrugged. ‘You phone an 0898 number, you listen to a recorded message. The calls can last anything up to ten minutes. They supply leaflets etc, you leave your phone number and we send them on.’

Donna sipped her coffee. ‘I see.’

Stephen picked up his own coffee and said acidly, ‘Nothing illegal about that, is there?’