moving in.
‘God, that took long enough!’ she said with mild exasperation, opening the box of pastries. ‘Never mind. The milk’s still warm and I’ll make another pot of coffee. Oh, I forgot to tell you, that friend of yours came round.’
‘What friend?’
‘Some Sardinian name.’
‘Gilberto Nieddu?’
‘That’s him. He sent me an email saying that he was going to be in the area and could he drop by. I told him you were away, but he said he wanted to see me. It turns out that he’s importing generic copies of patented medicines manufactured illegally in India and the Far East, repackaging them here to resemble the original and then offering them to pharmacists at a large discount to pass off as the full-price brand- name product.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘No, basically. It was a bit awkward, what with him being your friend and all. But I’m doing all right as it is, and I just want to feel decent, you know?’
‘I certainly do.’
‘Anyway, tell me all about this case you’ve been working on up north. I didn’t ask last night. You were just too tired.’
Zen grimaced.
‘There’s really nothing much to say. Just a nasty little domestic drama of no significance. The wife had an affair, the husband found out and killed the lover, then the wife found out about that and killed the husband.’
‘How sordid.’
‘Exactly. But who cares? It’s got nothing to do with us.’
He kissed her on the lips.
‘I love you madly.’
‘ Carissimo! And I love you sanely. A winning combination, don’t you think?’
Zen kissed her again as the coffee started to gurgle up into the pot. He smiled for what felt like the first time in days.
‘It could be worse,’ he said. ‘It could be a lot worse.’
