‘You’re right, and one of the reasons I didn’t want to hand it to the authorities was because it implicated her. I’ve dealt with that. If I hand it to McCoy, my guess is she will be safe. I thought before today that Peterson and McCoy had bought the line that I had lost the dongle, but they haven’t and they know I’ve hidden it.’

‘How do they know that?’

‘Maybe they’ve been watching me.’

‘If that was the case, they would have dug it up themselves. Have you told anyone else? That batty woman you hang around with, for example. She seems a bit tricky to me.’

‘No, I’ve only told Emily, but she’s on my side. She wouldn’t put me in the shit.’

‘Oh, is that right? Funny that she should leave the flat without any explanation or even a light farewell. You might want to think around whether you’re being played here, mate. Maybe she was just sticking around long enough to complete her assignment.’

I thought about the phone call that Peterson was having just before my interview with him. The image of Emily phoning McCoy and then McCoy alerting Peterson seemed to fit the moment. Fuck, I’d been played, and worse than that, it was by Emily, the lady that I adored.

‘You need to give them the dongle. It’s the only way to find out what her true intentions are. Maybe she will stick around, maybe you will never see her again. Best find out either way and cleanse your worrying.’

‘Should I take it with me now?’

‘Take it into the lion’s den? I don’t think so, mate. You need to hand it over on your own terms, out in the open and after getting some reassurances about your future involvement.’

‘Yeah, you’re right,’ I said as I pushed the dongle back into its muddy purse.

‘Anyway, it was nice talking to you. Got to get back to the wife.’

‘Oh, “wife” is it now?’

‘Don’t tell her I said that.’

And he was gone.

I got in my car and drove to Camberwell Green, and this is where you joined me at the beginning of my story, stuck at a zebra crossing waiting for some bloke to retrieve his spilled onions that are strewn across the road. No Emily and no friends to speak of apart from Grace. Life did indeed feel shit. I was both scared and exhausted by the whole affair. Hopefully my meeting with McCoy would be the beginning of the end.