Grace smiled over her shoulder as she pushed the door open. She’d need more than luck. ‘Salamat tinggal, Putu.’

She hardly registered the journey to Kuala Lumpur as she read through her notes of all she and Mel had learned and deduced, pared down to the facts, and she remembered Mel’s advice to avoid any emotion. Easier said than done, she thought wistfully. Her whole body thrummed with nervous tension.

At Lawrence’s suggestion they’d agreed to meet at the Whisky Lounge bar at Marini’s on the fifty-seventh floor of the Petronas Towers. It sounded masculine and intimidating, but his rationale had been that she could catch the fast train from the airport directly to the Petronas Towers. This was the place for a power suit, which she didn’t have in Bali. So she’d chosen a simple white linen fitted dress and the Walter Spies scarf Johnny had given her slung across her shoulders.

She arrived early and found a couple of lounge chairs and a low table as far away from the bar as possible. She hated being a woman alone in a place like this. At least the lunch crush had dissipated. There was an older man reading a magazine nearby but the tables around her were empty. She turned her back to the room, ordered a coffee and looked at her phone, re-reading her notes.

‘Good afternoon, Grace.’ Lawrence suddenly loomed above her. He pulled out the chair opposite as a waiter hurried over.

‘Good afternoon, Mr Hagen. What can I get you?’ The waiter glanced at Grace with a polite but cool expression. ‘Madam?’

‘Another coffee. Thank you,’ she said.

‘An espresso and sparkling mineral water.’ Lawrence sat down, putting his briefcase beside him and unbuttoning his jacket.

Grace recognised that smile; she’d seen him use it on people he had no time for, but whom he needed or was humouring. For a moment she stared at him, seeing him as perhaps others saw him, and realised with a shock that he was a stranger. Had she ever really known him? Had she been just another in a line of people he’d used, to meet a need or complete a picture? He’d wanted to present himself as a successful businessman and family man, and that was where she and Daisy had fitted in.

Was this the man she had given up her career goals for, the man she’d wanted to start a family with? The man she’d thought she’d loved, with whom she’d had sex, a child, and with whom she’d been prepared to spend the rest of her life?

He smiled easily. ‘You’re looking very well, Grace. Classy, successful, always an attractive woman. Asia agrees with you.’