Laure broke it and the unexpected accord. ‘Petr, I must know who betrayed us. Was it you?’ She gulped her whisky down as if it was a rescue remedy. ‘I know Lucia and Milos wouldn’t have done. But, maybe, one of the others. I need to know. As you would do if something almost ruined your life. Perhaps did so? I know that I can put my life together again and what happened to me is nothing compared to what happened to Tomas. It was ten years ago…’ Ten difficult years, he thought. ‘And we are all learning to love one another.’ Her voice dropped a note. ‘Here’s the chance to tell me the truth. A good thing to do?’

He knew this would be coming. ‘Not necessarily.’

‘Lucia had had a bad time, I know that much,’ she cut across him. ‘Her parents had been threatened. Like many, she lived on the edge. But she was a fanatic for the cause. I admired that in her. She was brave.’

‘Perhaps.’ He closed his eyes for a micro-second and made a decision. He would tell her something. ‘But she informed on you, Laure.’

‘What?’ She sat bolt upright, eyes wide. ‘Lucia?’

After the fall of the regime, he had made it his business to find out what the State had on him. The letter had been in his file in the archives. He quoted verbatim from it. ‘“Petr Kobes is employing a person who is spreading anti-communist sentiments and corrupting young children.”’

‘I can’t believe Lucia would…’ She bunched a hand into a fist. ‘Lucia!’

‘Motives are complicated,’ he said, with more than a touch of irony. ‘I learnt that, rather late but I have learnt it. Think of this. Lucia would want you out of the way because you attracted too much attention from the authorities. Better you vanished. It wasn’t personal.’

‘How did the police know about the meeting at the theatre?’

‘Who knows?’ he replied after a pause. ‘It’s possible we will never know the ins and outs.’

Was Laure craving retribution or absolution?

‘Did you ever try to find out what happened to Tomas?’ he asked.

‘I did and got nowhere.’

‘And he didn’t contact you?’

‘No,’ she said pitifully. ‘No.’ Again, she sprang to her feet. ‘That last day… when I left you.’ She swivelled around to face him. ‘Turning a blind eye is a national sport in Czechoslovakia. Why couldn’t you have done the same?’ She stood directly in front of Petr. ‘Why?’

He wanted to say: but I did for you.

‘Tomas wasn’t that important,’ she went on. ‘He wasn’t a politician. He didn’t matter.’

‘If you are worshipped by the young, you do matter.’ He sent Laure a wintry smile. ‘Even Eva lusted after him.’

She was checked. ‘I’d forgotten that. Poor Eva.’