‘Who left the venue first, Liam or your husband?’

‘Gabe, obviously. Liam stayed there because he knew he and I would be going on to the hotel.’

‘Which hotel?’

‘I don’t know its name. Or where it was. You know this! That’s why I told Charlie about Liam, so that you could ask him. He remembers, and he wouldn’t tell me, but he might tell you.’

‘Can you tell me anything about the hotel at all?’

‘Are you serious? I’ve already—’

‘What can you tell me about that hotel?’

‘The bed in my room was too narrow! Not a proper double. As you already know.’

‘Did Liam Sturridge share that narrow bed with you?’

‘Yes.’

‘All night?’

‘Yes.’

‘Until what time in the morning?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe … eight, eight thirty?’

‘Didn’t he have work the next morning?’

‘I don’t remember. He’d been at a work team-building thing that day … I’m not sure about the day after. Why don’t you ask him?’

‘I will.’

Beside me, Charlie lights a cigarette.

‘The white book you’d been given – where was it at this point?’ Waterhouse continues with his grilling. ‘In your bag at the hotel?’

‘No. I’ve told you, and I’ve told Gibbs: I either left it at the venue on the table or I chucked it in a bin there.’

‘So it wasn’t among your possessions at the hotel?’

‘I’ve just answered that question.’

‘Could it have been among Liam’s possessions? What if he picked it up at the gig after you discarded it? Is that possible?’

‘I don’t know!’

Charlie takes the phone from my hand. ‘Enough, Simon,’ she says. ‘Calm down. We’ll ring you from the hotel in a bit.’

I watch her press the end-call button. Thank God for that.

‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘It’s the buzz of an influx of new information. There’s been a lot today. He gets like that, I’m afraid.’

‘Please don’t say I have to speak to him again today. Please.’

She laughs.

Let me say upfront that I approve of Simon Waterhouse. He’s a frighteningly intelligent force for good, and I’m glad he exists. I’ve also never had such a powerful feeling of escape successfully achieved as I did when he declared our second telephone conversation of the day – much longer and more laborious than the first – to be over. There was a catch, however: what had struggled free from his sustained interrogation was not the richly complex person I’d been beforehand but a squinting husk whose brain matter had largely been sucked out through an invisible straw.