A rare smug moment of self-belief made me lift her up and swing her round, twice. I let myself be sucked into a spontaneous display of gaiety. We talked about work, present and past, and I used the mood of relaxation and apparent trust to delve deeper. It was time to build on the bones of my master plan and fill in the remaining gaps of Rebecca’s past. There would be no skeletons in our closets.

The wine loosened her tongue and names materialised out of nowhere; as if by magic. She seemed, for once, mellow in my company.

‘James Pennington. He was the brother of my dead boss. I told you about Roger? He hanged himself when his wife went off with a younger man.’ I wasn’t happy at her flippancy and it took me by surprise when she smiled. She seemed to be belittling the misery.

‘You had an affair? That was risqué.’ A rhetorical question masked my horror.

‘It wasn’t an affair, as such. We were just good friends. We were both in a place where we needed an outlet, someone to talk to,’ she continued. Keep calm and carry on. Act normal and pretend you didn’t hear and didn’t see.

‘You’re not shocked, surely?’ She was mocking. I was aghast at the sudden mention of a third person who might be linked to her upbeat mood.

‘No, of course not. We all have a past.’ I smiled in assurance.

‘Go on then; what about you? There must have been other ladies. Anyone serious?’ I didn’t like the way she flicked her hair back, flirtatiously. It was a mannerism of affectation, a strange spontaneous tic linked to the unknown.

‘No one really. A usual first love but it sort of fizzled out.’ I watched Rebecca for signs of pity. I wasn’t the sort to warrant jealous outbursts but pity would have been a vicious taunt.

However, a gold star would be added alongside Rebecca’s photo, I decided, when she asked quietly, ‘What was her name?’ Perhaps she had known all along. Perhaps she had been jealous. Maybe that would explain her reticence. How perfect would that have been?

‘Amber,’ I said.

James Pennington’s name was added to the board. I cut out from a magazine a picture of a minor celebrity, an actor with short black neatly cropped hair, and pasted it beside the other characters. This would have to do until I got a genuine photograph of this bit player.