She touched the walls. Some parts were unplastered and you could see the stone. The thick walls guaranteed coolness, and despite the overpowering heat outside, inside it was a pleasant temperature. It was a place where time stood still. Life went on as it had done in bygone centuries; people were self-sufficient, working on the land, looking after orchards, cattle or goodness knows what else. It was then that she made the connection with the two patterns carved in stone she had noticed on arrival. When she was trying to find the right key, she had spotted two motifs engraved in the wall on either side of the door. Although they had rubbed away you could make out the outline of vine leaves with two bunches of grapes on one side, and a barrel on the other side, suggesting that the house had originally had something to do with wine.

Franck was now climbing back up towards the house, bitter and worn out. Lise watched him from the shade inside, while he was in full sunlight. Two-thirds of the way up the slope he put his hands on his hips, still cluthcing the lifeless phone. The signal bars had completely disappeared. He had even got blood on it, blood that had already dried. But he had to be contactable. He couldn’t tell Lise everything. He was reluctant to open up about his recent disputes, but going into partnership with two colleagues twenty-five years his junior was no joke, particularly given that the pair had made their money not in film-making but in video games. Franck was wary of them, of their way of questioning everything, and especially of the meeting they had planned with Netflix in the next few days. Liem and Travis had been worrying him for three months, but he didn’t want to admit it, for fear of looking like an old fool. That was why he had to be contactable, to stop them from doing something stupid.

Lise saw him arrive in the doorway, out of breath as if he had been running for hours.

Completely distraught, he said with the little breath he had left: ‘Lise, it’s awful, there’s nothing … There’s nothing!’

‘What do you mean, there’s nothing?’

‘I don’t understand, there’s no signal anywhere; I can’t even get one bar. Can you believe it, not even one bar?’

‘Have you seen how out of breath you are?’

‘For goodness’ sake, Lise, it’s all uphill here. Or rather it’s up and down, and on the other side there are brambles and creatures everywhere. This really is the back of beyond.’

Seeing Franck in such a state, Lise was keen not to make things worse. He was still holding his phone in his hand like a poor bleeding animal.

‘Did you hurt yourself?’

‘It’s nothing. But, shit, it’s crazy; we’re up high and there’s no reception anywhere. It’s madness!’