‘Let me tell you now and get it over with,’ I said. ‘Any hotel room I go into, whether I’m spending the night there or just popping in, I have to take a book into the room with me and put it in a drawer. If there’s a Bible in the room, I have to put my book in the same drawer as the Bible. If there’s no Bible, any drawer will do.’ My face radiated heat as I spoke. I’d have found it less embarrassing if I’d had to admit that I travelled with a bag of sex toys.

‘Really?’ Charlie wasn’t smiling. She didn’t look as if she was preparing to mock me. ‘Which book? The same one every time?’

‘Yes. It’s called Delirium of the Brave. By Terence Nithercott. I guarantee you won’t have heard of it. Please don’t ask me why I have to take it to every hotel with me. There’s literally no reason. The book has … had … sentimental value. Soon after I got it, as a present, I took it with me to a hotel because I wanted to try and read it – turns out it’s unreadable – and then it kind of became a thing. A mascot, or … I don’t know.’

Why was Charlie Zailer suddenly paying such close attention to my every word?

‘What would happen if I said, “I want you to go into hotel rooms without that book from now on”?’ she asked.

I shrugged. ‘I’d probably take the opportunity to persuade myself it’s turned into an irrational obsession, and now’s a great moment to break the habit.’

She nodded. ‘And if I say, “Do what you like with regard to the book”? Then are you going to bring it or leave it at home?’

‘Bring it. Don’t you have any irrational superstitions?’

‘Have you read Beloved by Toni Morrison?’

‘No, I don’t think so. I’ve read one of her books – The Bluest Eye. Why?’

‘Billy Dead Mates sent a copy of Beloved to Sondra Halliday, a journalist who’s been—’

‘I know who Halliday is. I’ve been reading her commentary on the murders. With mounting incredulity. I wish someone’d get her the help she needs.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘From the few autobiographical columns of hers I’ve read in the past, I know she should be crying on a shrink’s couch and drinking hot milk with honey in it till she feels better, not trauma-laundering to create unrest.’

‘I’ve seen her mention PTSD but never anything specific.’ The hardness of Charlie’s voice suggested she wasn’t convinced. I was. You don’t end up like Sondra Halliday if nothing terrible’s happened to you; you don’t harm others unless you’ve been harmed yourself first.