‘So why do you think your employer wanted you to come here?’

‘Because I suffered a temporary lapse of judgement.’

‘Please explain.’

I shrug, still the surly teen. ‘I asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why he fucked my sister and got her pregnant. And I might have accused him of murdering her.’

For the first time, Dr McGovern seems lost for something to say; she looks concerned, as though she might have miscalculated. ‘Did you really say that?’

‘Not word for word, but yes, more or less.’

‘And how does that seem to you now, what you did?’

I’m sorry about it. But probably not in the way Dr McGovern thinks I should be. I’m not sorry for Kendall: I’m sorry I took a punt on a story that turned out not to be true. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it stings my pride like hell. And worse than that, I’m angry with myself for thinking Clare would have been having an affair. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Charles got the wrong end of the stick. They must have slept together and he just doesn’t remember. Maybe once when he landed from New York, still jet-lagged, half-asleep. There’s no way Clare would have been having an affair.

Dr McGovern is waiting for my answer.

‘Accusing the Chancellor was a misjudgement. But there was a lot of circumstantial evidence. I got carried away. I regret that.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. But I need to ask you one or two other questions.’

‘OK.’

‘Have you been hearing voices at all?’

‘What do you mean “hearing voices”?’

‘Is there somebody talking to you, and just to you, in your head.’

‘No, of course not. I’m not crazy.’

‘Gil, it’s my responsibility to ask these things. You have had a very serious shock and you are a user of hard drugs. A psychosis is not out of the question, especially after what you just told me.’

‘Look. Given that I assume you are totally bound by rules of confidentiality, the Hippocratic Oath or whatever, I am very happy to tell you why I reached that conclusion about the Chancellor. I may have been wrong about his relationship with Clare, but I was not wrong that he’s seriously dodgy.’

‘I think we should leave the Chancellor out of this,’ she says hastily. ‘One other thing: do you sometimes hear noises that no one else can hear.’

‘I don’t think so. Unless you’re referring to that incessant screaming.’ She looks alarmed. ‘I’m joking! No, I don’t hear strange sounds.’

She tugs the hem of her skirt down and scribbles something in the Filofax.