‘Norah Richter,’ she said. ‘I think we’ve exchanged texts.’

‘I’d know about that,’ the woman said, suddenly sure of herself.

‘Please don’t hang up,’ Norah said quickly, but it was too late.

She sighed.

Then she checked the text message to make sure she hadn’t entered the wrong number by mistake. She hadn’t. Norah put her head in her hands and tried to think. She’d evidently been wrong to assume that it was the anonymous texter’s number; the woman she’d spoken to hadn’t been expecting her call. And why would she have given Norah her number only to hang up on her? Norah realised she was being stupid, because of course she already had the texter’s number; this was a new number, belonging to somebody else. Norah studied the chain of messages she’d exchanged with the unknown contact.

Get away from there!

—

He’s dangerous.

—

Why should I believe you?

—

I’ll prove it to you.

Norah pressed her lips together and tried the new number again. She had to let it ring for a long time, but eventually the woman picked up.

‘Hello?’

‘I’m sorry to disturb you again, Ms Reiter,’ said Norah, trying to sound respectable and a little formal. ‘But I’m afraid it’s very important.’

There was a moment’s silence.

‘Okay,’ the woman said. ‘What’s it about?’

Norah thought of her friend Coco and how much she hated talking about what had happened to her.

‘I’d like to talk to you about Arthur Grimm,’ she said.

The woman made a strangled sound; Norah had hit the mark.

‘Where did you get my number?’ the woman asked.

Norah decided to be as honest as possible.

‘Someone gave it to me,’ she said, adding with a flash of inspiration, ‘Ms Reiter, I’m on your side.’

Her gaze fell on the tarot card which she still hadn’t got rid of. The grim reaper looked out at her; she turned the card over.

‘How do you know Arthur?’ the woman asked.

Good question, Norah thought. Should she reveal all without even knowing who she was talking to? And where would she begin if she did?

‘He’s been threatening me,’ said Norah, following her gut instinct.

‘Are you his new woman? If you are, I can only warn you.’

‘No,’ Norah said quickly. ‘No, I’m not.’

‘Count yourself lucky. So what do you want from him?’

How could she explain without sounding like a complete weirdo?

‘I’m afraid it’s rather complicated,’ she said, to buy time. ‘A friend of mine is seeing him. And I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’ve had a bad feeling about the guy right from the start. I don’t usually do this kind of thing, you know, but I’m a journalist—curious by profession… So I asked around a bit. I just want to know who the man is—what my friend’s letting herself in for.’

She stopped for a moment. Did it sound plausible?

‘Well, and then I met someone who gave me your number and said if I wanted to find out what kind of a man Arthur Grimm is, I should ask you.’