“Again . . . life on the planet earth. Sorry.” I don’t sound it, because I don’t feel it. “You don’t like the idea of Lee landing me in it, but you’re not prepared to lie for me if the police contact you? Interesting ethical distinction. Might there be some cowardice and hypocrisy involved?”

“Nicki, stop.” A tear rolls down Melissa’s cheek. The sight of it makes me stiffen. The last time I cried in front of her—three weeks and five days ago, after my first encounter with the sand-haired policeman—she told me that whatever I was upset about was bound to be my own fault, and declared herself unwilling to hear any of the details.

I’m equally incapable of comforting her now. I like to think I’m open-minded, but it’s hard to sympathize when I’m me, and having me as a friend is the cause of all her pain. Even I don’t think I’m that bad.

“Are you trying to arrange it so that I won’t be able to speak to you at all, Nicki?” Melissa blurts out. “Is that what you want? Maybe you’d like me to be so frightened of what you might say that I don’t open the door to you anymore, or take your calls.”

“Frightened? What’s the worst I’m going to do, Melissa? Oh, wait, I’m not going to”—I mimic a prissy voice—“put you in a difficult position, am I? No, as it happens, I’m not. You put yourself in that difficult position when you decided to shack up with my brother!”

Even if I live to be a hundred, I doubt I’ll ever forget the way Melissa chose to tell me. I remember the date too: May 24, 2010. She called me up and, without saying hello, asked, “How would you feel if Lee and I . . . you know, sort of got together?”

“Lee? My brother Lee?” He and Mel had recently met for the first time in many years at my birthday party a few months earlier. As far as I was aware, they hadn’t seen each other since that night. Realizing that there must have been subsequent secret contact between them didn’t especially bother me; unlike my mother, father and brother, I don’t feel I have an automatic right to know everything about those close to me. I’m not against secrecy; it’s hypocrisy I can’t stand—people who preach honesty and straightforwardness, then keep you in the dark when it suits them.

People like Lee and Melissa.

“Yes, your brother,” Mel said nervously. “Sorry if this comes as a bit of a shock.”