‘I don’t know. Steph didn’t ask. He raged at the white knight so much the white knight took off. Stephan rang me to rage some more and I said he had no business chasing the white knight away. If someone was roofied that night the police might want to talk to me in case I was roofied too. It would explain why I didn’t think I’d drunk enough to pass out. I might know something to help prosecute the scum who did whatever they did to that poor woman and left her to come round alone and naked in a public place.’ She shuddered. ‘Can you imagine?’

‘Barely.’ Zia shuddered too. The idea was terrifying.

Ursula hiccupped. ‘Steph sneered that I was grasping at straws to excuse my own behaviour. I told him to fuck off, he told me to fuck off, and that’s the state of our marriage. And as being teetotal since Stephan threw me out has got me precisely nowhere, I’m about to have a nice big glass of wine. Join me?’

‘Definitely.’ Zia hugged Ursula hard and went to fetch the white wine from the fridge. ‘I can see why you cut alcohol for a while but, let’s face it, a glass of lemonade can be spiked as easily as a cocktail.’ She took down two glasses and took them to the low table.

She’d just poured when an urgent blam-blam fell on the front door. ‘What on earth?’ she gasped. Bouncing to her feet she raced to answer the summons, half-expecting there to be a fire. She flung open the door to find Lucia Costa on the dusty paving, sweat beading her forehead, thick silver-streaked waves flying in the breeze, a sheet of paper clutched in one hand.

‘Zia-Lucia,’ she whispered.

Zia’s heart somersaulted as she realised the paper Lucia was gripping was the printout of her passport’s photo page. She stared into Lucia’s dark, emotion-filled eyes and, wordlessly, their gazes locked. Piero jogged up, eyes wary, with portly Durante puffing behind.

‘Cosa c’é? What is the matter?’ Durante gasped and twitched the paper from Lucia’s hand. He skimmed it. Then, slowly, he turned to gaze at Zia with wide, astounded eyes. He grasped Lucia’s arm. ‘I didn’t read it! I just scanned the page for the authorities.’

Lucia swayed.

Piero got his arm beneath hers. ‘Zia, perhaps if you were to let Lucia sit down …?’

Blood hammering in her ears, Zia shook herself from her stupor. ‘Of course. Yes. Come in.’ A voice inside her said, It’s the right Lucia! She felt as if her head and her heart were trying to meet in her throat. Desperate yearning to know whatever Lucia knew warred with an equally desperate fear that Zia would be worse off for knowing.