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Here was an opportunity.

“It was good,” said Renee. “Is that what you want? To be friends?”

Ket Siong met her eyes. “I’ve missed you.”

Renee’s treacherous heart gave a thump. A small voice at the back of her head said,Maybe this isn’t a good idea.

But it would be a pity to lose touch with Ket Siong again. There was no need to let her baggage get in the way. She wasn’t in love with him anymore. Perhaps that meant they could actually be friends, this time.

“I missed you, too,” she said. “You’re on WhatsApp, right? What’s your number?”

Ket Siong had more concrete ideas. As he saved Renee’s number to his phone, he said, “There’s a retrospective of Rembrandt’s works on at the National Gallery. I was thinking of going. Would you be interested?”

Renee was always forming resolutions to make more of thecity’s galleries and theatres, and never doing it. She hadn’t been to a museum in months, other than the reception the night before.

“That sounds good,” she said. She smiled, a little nervous, and was rewarded when Ket Siong smiled back—his rare, sweet smile. It lit up his face, giving it a totally different cast.

Maybe this was going to work.

“Let’s do it,” said Renee.

8

It was quietwhen Ket Siong let himself into the house where he lived with his family.

Maybe Ma and Ket Hau were out. Ket Hau often took their mother out on the weekends, for a meal and a wander around London. Otherwise, he said, she’d never leave the house.

Or they might be having a lie-in. Ket Siong took off his shoes before climbing the stairs that led from the front door up to their first-floor flat, wincing at every creak.

He was tiptoeing towards the bedroom he shared with his brother when Ket Hau said:

“Where have youbeen?”

Ket Siong let out a strangled yelp. His brother surged out of the shadows like a vengeful ghost, grabbed him by the arm, and rushed him into their room, kicking the door shut behind them.

“Shh! I don’t want to wake Ma,” said Ket Hau. “She was so worried, she would have stayed up all night if I didn’t make her go to bed. What happened to you?”

His face had relaxed upon seeing Ket Siong, but Ket Siong could see the marks of a night’s worry scored across it.

Ket Siong hadn’t been thinking about anything except Renee till now. Guilt twisted in his chest. “My phone died.”

“Yeah, I told Ma that must have happened,” said Ket Hau. “Probably you lost your wallet and couldn’t get back home, so you had to stay over at your student’s place. And you couldn’t remember our numbers, so you couldn’t borrow a phone to tellus. All kinds of nonsense. I had to say something. Ma was terrified, she thought… I was thinking the same things. Couldn’t make up my mind whether to call the police or not. Are you OK?”

Ket Siong could well imagine what they had been thinking. The same horrors would have been parading before his mind’s eye, had either of them gone missing. After what had happened to Stephen, his family had lost all faith in the safety or predictability of the universe.

How could he have forgotten them? He could have borrowed Renee’s phone to give them a call. Though if they knew the full story of what he had been up to, they would scarcely have found it comforting.

Ket Siong’s encounter with Low Teck Wee at the V&A had been overshadowed by what subsequently happened, but it came back to him now.

“I’m fine,” he said, suppressing a wince. Could he get away with not telling his brother about confronting Low Teck Wee? If Ket Hau was disappointed in him now, that was nothing to the reactionthatwould elicit. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know.”

“Where were you last night?” said Ket Hau. He looked Ket Siong over.

Ket Siong was acutely conscious of every crease in his suit. They hadn’t been particularly careful about taking it off the night before. Warmth flooded his cheeks.

“Did you go on a bender or something?” said Ket Hau, disbelieving. A more plausible scenario struck him. “Did somebody slip something into your drink?”

“No, I…” Ket Siong cleared his throat. “I started talking to someone at the reception. We went for a drink and it got late, so I saw them back to their place and, um… and then it was too late to come home.”