“Didn’t Essie sign with you after splitting up with Ted? That’s what he told me.”

“Sure.” Sven twisted a ring around his thumb. Her mentioning Ted’s name seemed to assure him it was okay to talk. “After her divorce, Essie was flying high. She wanted to start over and sign with a literary agency, to get her the best deals. The trouble was, everyone wanted her.”

“How did you woo her?”

“I like this word, woo.” He laughed again. “With someone like Essie, it is mostly about the mind. You have to pique her interest, challenge her or equal her. I knew flowers and flattery would not do the trick.”

Liv thought how Sven was unlikely to send Essie white roses.

“We had a terrible first meeting. I spilled a little coffee on her dress, and asked which author’s career she would most like to have. She stared at me as if I was an imbecile. ‘My own, of course,’ was her reply.” Sven made his fingers into a gun and mimed shooting into the air, and his hand fluttering down. “Pow. I thought it was over. I mean, it was bad.”

“How did you win her around?”

“I didn’t try. I gave her space. She met other agents and called me after a couple of months, sick of everyone sucking up to her. We were like a married couple straightaway, bickering and annoying the hell out of each other. Our wordplay together was a little like foreplay.”

Liv blushed.

“Ted wanted her to be some literary darling, but I said she should be herself. If you’re good at something, why not stick with it? She wasn’t super original, but she was driven and readers loved her work. I told her she was a golden goose that should keep on laying.”

Liv cringed inwardly. “Didn’t she mind?” she said.

“She thought it was funny. I remember at our first Dubfest together we sat in a bar like this one at midnight, talking about her books. The sea was black, stretching before us. The moon was out, and the stars twinkled. I asked Essie what she wanted from life. And she held out a palm and said, ‘All this, for a start.’ She enjoyed the attention, and the awards and the clothes, and the men. She was always looking for something, and people flocked to her.”

Liv wondered how that would feel. Essie had wanted so much from life and then turned her back on it all. But why? “Were the two of you ever romantically involved?” she said.

“Definitely not,” he said.

“Oh...okay.” Liv found the photo on her phone of Essie and Anthony. “Do you know this man?”

“Who is he, a lover?” he said, pinching his lips together. “I thought Essie and I shared the same taste in men.”

“I’m not sure.”