‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Where do I find the money?’

‘Wire transfer. It’ll be in your numbered account on Monday. You tell the others exactly what the deal is. You were always handy with words, I’m making that your responsibility.’

Before she got up to leave, she took my hand. The contact was so surprising it ran through me like an electric shock. I could not remember ever feeling Lisa’s skin before. It was smooth and cool.

‘I’m sorry, James, I like you, I like all of you. I want to help you all. But I can’t afford this no more.’

When she left, I felt another cold blast of wind on the back of my neck. I picked up the file, and before I left I went to the bar and ordered a single whisky.

Parting with the money was, for me, the easiest part of the process. Jessica treated it like pulling off a plaster, a painful experience best dealt with quickly, but it was almost a relief to me, since with the money went my capacity to take responsibility for Francis, to pay his bills and keep him out of trouble. I had spent barely a penny of it myself; all it had done in the four months it had spent in my account was to accrue a healthy portion of interest. With it gone I felt the blissful release of someone who disclaims any hand in their own fate.

We no longer trusted Francis to hold the cash for so much as a day, and he no longer disputed our right to distrust him. This saddened me in a way I had not foreseen, for though I had feared an argument with him his meek acquiescence was worse. He had lost the will to pretend. He had taken Lisa’s withdrawal harder than either Jessica or me. I think that somewhere in his imagination there survived a peaceful corner reserved for our mutual happiness, and neither money nor parties nor drink nor drugs were part of the vision. But with the loss of one of his friends, one of the pillars supporting this private space collapsed, and the dream was finally gone from him completely. Now at last the mania that had possessed him during the first weeks of term abruptly vanished, leaving him alone to face its consequences.