“I am a mountaineer. Also an instructor. I give lessons here at the hotel.” He gives another idiotic laugh that raises doubts about his level of intelligence. “This watch is a Forerunner 620 with colour touchscreen display. It can give a VO₂ max estimate, which is the maximum capacity to consume oxygen during maximum stress. I want to give it to my cousin for Christmas. We always climb together. He should have been here, but he slipped in the bath and broke his femur.”

Lena gives him a polite smile. “Yes, a bathtub’s more dangerous than Everest.”

“This is a very accurate observation.” The mountaineer pauses for a moment. “Do you know what I once found on the summit of K2?”

“No, what?”

“A bedside table.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, it’s true. I opened it and there was nothing in it.” After another pause, he starts again. “You feel a wonderful sensation when you climb, you know? A real feeling of freedom.”

He again laughs like a simpleton, as if he never knows how to follow up on what he says.

Lena closes her eyes and again makes a vaguely ironic comment. “I’d only feel fear.”

“That’s also a wonderful feeling, you know?” And, once more, he laughs like an idiot.

Lena opens her eyes, but does not look at him.

The little lake is overlooked by a glass cube that holds the indoor swimming pool. Above them, on the other side of the glass, an expressionless Fred Ballinger stands watching his daughter below.

36

Fred, Mick and Jimmy Tree are peacefully sunning themselves on loungers, wrapped in white dressing gowns. All have their eyes closed.

Fred has a newspaper open on his lap. Mick and Jimmy are chatting.

“Who’s the most talented actress you’ve ever worked with, Mr Boyle?”

“Brenda Morel. No doubt about it. She’s a genius. She may not have read more than two books in her whole life, and one of those was her autobiography – which a ghostwriter wrote for her, of course – but Brenda remains a genius.”

Jimmy sniggers. “In what sense is she a genius?”

“If you know how to steal, you don’t need to be educated. Theft is your education. That’s how Brenda is. Even when she became a star – thanks to my films – she never forgot that her home was on the streets. And that’s where she’s stayed, on the streets, where she steals everything she sees. Everything. That’s how she created those memorable characters. And won two Oscars.”

“What did she steal?”

“We’re shooting ‘The Crystal Woman’. In one scene, at the back of the film set, an electrician with a slight limp goes past, making an almost imperceptible sound when he steps on his shorter leg. No-one had heard it, but she did. So while she’s playing the part, she stops and calls ‘Cut’. I shout, ‘Brenda, what the hell . . . ? I’m the only one to call cut.’ ‘Like hell, Mick,’ she says. ‘If we’re getting the character wrong, I call cut.’ She’s looking at the electrician. The guy wants to sink into the ground, but she lights up and says, ‘Mick, my character should have one leg shorter than the other. She walks with a limp.’ I fall off my chair and tell her, ‘Brenda, are you crazy? Your character can’t have a limp. Your character is a woman the whole world desires, every man wants to go to bed with her, she’s a dream.’ And she says, ‘Mick, even dreams have problems.’” Jimmy laughs. “She was right. With that little trick she won her second Oscar.”