He’d studied every feature in her face, comparing it to the database of images stored in his head. On closer inspection, he had become aware of discrepancies. Of course, the hair was different. The long cornsilk of his lover’s hair was far more beautiful than the short, thick blonde crop of this stranger, though it was clearly as natural a shade as Katerina’s. Their profiles were subtly distinct in ways he couldn’t quite gauge. Katerina’s eyes had been a deep hyacinth blue, but even in the dim light of the theatre, he could see that Caroline’s were grey-blue. Their mouths were different too. Katerina’s lips had been sensuous, full, beautifully shaped, appearing always to be on the point of a kiss. This Englishwoman had thinner lips, her mouth promising far less than Katerina had always delivered. But when Caroline smiled, the contrast had disappeared and the resemblance had become even more profound. Seeing that mouth pronounce the familiar ‘Tadzio’ had disconcerted him more than almost anything else.

The strangest thing about his scrutiny of her face was that although he could see clearly that she wasn’t Katerina, those small variations only served to reinforce this interloper’s effect on him. She wasn’t Katerina, which was both a disappointment and a relief. But she was a woman who had the power to move him as no one had done since Katerina’s death. That was unnerving, but also fraught with strange possibilities. The notion of working with her made him both apprehensive and excited.

But not so excited that he had forgotten the basic rules of the game. As soon as the second act had ended, he had taken the first steps to find out what he could about Caroline Jackson. He remembered a man he’d met a couple of times when he’d been setting up the deal with Colin Osborne. Nick Kramer was another Essex boy who had worked with Colin in the past. He clearly wasn’t a lieutenant in the way that Darko was, and Tadeusz reckoned the main reason Colin had brought him along was to make it look as if the teams were even. Tadeusz, always covering the bases, still had Kramer’s number stored on his mobile phone.

Kramer had answered on the second ring. ‘Yeah?’ he grunted.

‘This is Colin’s German friend,’ Tadeusz said. ‘We met in London?’

‘Oh yeah, right, I remember you. What’s happening?’

‘I’ve come across someone who says she was a friend of Colin. I wondered if you knew her.’

‘What’s her name?’

‘Caroline Jackson. She says they were looking to do some business.’