Saturday, 12.01 a.m.

I put an arm around her shoulder because she looked sad and contrite. ‘Have you been waiting out here long?’ I asked.

‘I wasn’t keeping track,’ she said.

‘I know what you did,’ I said.

‘How?’

‘A process of elimination, I guess.’

‘They pressured me, Jerry. As soon as you got that phone call and flew out of the office, they said they’d give my name to Immigration. I was desperate. They backed me into a corner. They said I’d be deported. I didn’t want that. I like it here, I enjoy working for you.’

‘Jane, it doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘It’s OK.’

‘I stole a file, Jerry. That matters to me. I gave it to people who had no right to it. I broke the rules of confidentiality. Trust.’

Oh, Jane, I thought. You’re not alone. Trust was powder, ashes blown away and scattered.

I said, ‘Take next week off. Let’s cancel all the appointments and close the office.’

‘Is that what you want?’

‘You don’t know how much,’ I said.

‘Will you go out of town for a while?’

‘Probably.’

She turned her face so that lamplight fell against it. I thought how young she looked in this merciful orange light.

She said, ‘Allardyce – that was more poor judgment on my part.’

‘You like the guy?’

‘Not in a way that suggests we have a future,’ she said. ‘I feel sorry for him. He has that kind of face.’

‘Go home, Jane,’ I said. ‘It’s late.’

She said, ‘You’ll be OK?’

‘Sure I will.’

She turned away. I called her back. ‘One thing,’ I said. ‘How did you know the floor-safe combination?’

‘Jerry, you entrust me with bills, petty-cash, banking, correspondence, so there’s very little I don’t know about what goes on inside the office. And very little I don’t know about your personal habits and preferences … I figured there was a good chance you’d use the same number for the safe combination as for your bank PIN. Because you’re a creature of habit, Jerry. Why remember two sets of numbers when one will do?’

‘Predictable,’ I said. ‘Is that what I am?’

She nodded. ‘Much of the time.’

‘Is that good or bad?’

She smiled and moved slightly, and her face passed out of the lamplight and back into shadow. ‘Both,’ she said.