Laure’s recent visit to the optometrist and the prescription issued for reading glasses had come as a jolt. ‘Yes.’ She sat down in the chair opposite May. ‘What do you want to ask me?’

‘You tell me. Give me the opening and we’ll take it from there.’

Laure checked her watch. Was there a chance of getting away with only half an hour? She pointed to Kočka. ‘As you’ve found out, I’ve lived in two cities where it would have been beyond most people’s means to take in a feral cat.’

May flicked on the recording machine. ‘Prague and Berlin.’

The words arrived, surprisingly easily. ‘In 1986 I found myself in Prague for several months, just before the fall of the communist government. My father died suddenly, and I couldn’t cope at university. At that age, death doesn’t seem possible. It was a double blow. I was going to muck up my exams and my French mother arranged for me to take a year out in Paris as an au pair. As it turned out, my employers were Czech and that’s how I got to Prague.’

May pushed the recorder a shade closer to Laure.

‘I joined the foreign office and, after the Wall was demolished, I worked in Berlin for the British Embassy in a minor capacity. Which I liked too, even though it was grim at times.’

‘A minor capacity,’ said May, sounding thoughtful. ‘I can’t see you in a minor capacity.’ She paused. ‘Were you a spy? At the time, they were crawling all over the city.’

Laure said with a cold, quiet disdain, ‘I thought this was an adult interview.’

May flinched visibly and shifted in her seat, which made Laure suspect that she was more rookie and at sea than she had supposed. Even so, when questioning, the trick was: to bait the hook to suit the fish. Maybe that was May’s schtick to give her leverage with the awkward questions?

May rallied. ‘Needs asking though? Wasn’t Berlin an odd choice?’

‘You go where you’re posted. But I left the service when I was offered a very well-paid job as an interpreter in Paris.’ The half-truth slid off her tongue.

‘So, you developed a taste for living abroad. Or, preferred it.’

‘I did.’

‘Have you ever been back to Prague or Berlin?’

‘No.’

‘Any particular reason?’

Laure shrugged. ‘Hasn’t been convenient.’

‘Or, you didn’t wish to.’

Again, Laure shrugged.

May asked if she could use the bathroom and Laure pointed down the passage. May took her time but when she returned, she asked, ‘How did it all begin?’

She meant the museum.

How?

‘Where do ideas come from? Who knows?’