‘The investigation’s underway. I expect to hear something soon.’ Zia freed her feet from her flip-flops and wiggled her toes in the warm evening air. ‘And I’m still to decide about Gerardo, though I think about it a lot. I’ve seen Fiorella several times. I’m trying to get a sense of why Gerardo found her so scary. She does hold strong opinions, I guess, and she’s not afraid to share them.’

‘Plus, everyone changes in thirty years. She could once have been much scarier.’ Ursula’s voice dropped again. ‘And Piero?’

Bearing in mind that Stephan was probably still within earshot and not wanting him to carry tales to Brendon, Zia answered lightly. ‘Lucia and Durante are his friends so he often arrives at the end of the day for a beer or a glass of wine. We’re polite to each another but then I find a reason to drift back to the apartment.’ Seeing him was unsettling. She found herself watching his hands and remembering what they could do or noticing afresh his ebony lashes. ‘I love living in the apartment, Ursula! It’s so cute and my bedroom opens onto the terrace. There are new tourists in the cottages; all Brits. One couple are on a retirement trip around Europe and have a little brown dog. Lucia doesn’t allow pets but they just turned up with her.’

Ursula utterly disregarded the side-chat. ‘And Piero’s happy to pretend nothing happened?’

Zia undid her hair from its clasp and let it fall down her back for the breeze to play with. ‘He called once and asked to talk but I said now I’m staying I have to focus on other things.’

Stephan must have been close because he chimed in, breathy and close to the mic with a snarky, ‘Sounds like a good idea.’

Ursula hissed, ‘Private conversation, Stephan!’ She sounded mortified when she returned to Zia. ‘Sorry, honey. Honestly.’

‘No prob, I understand Stephan is Bren’s mate.’ Zia tried to sound breezy for the sake of harmony in Ursula’s newly resumed marriage. Naturally, Stephan’s unasked for opinion nettled her but she understood why he stuck his oar in on behalf of his friend.

When they’d all said goodbye, she stayed out to watch the twilight fall. She missed Ursula’s laughing, chatty understanding, her willowy presence, bright clothes and pretty body art.

She missed Piero as well, though she’d tried hard not to. She hardly knew him – if you could ‘hardly know’ someone you’d been upside down on top of. They’d met only three weeks ago and that was very little time in which to develop feelings … wasn’t it?