But finally the websites in Khryseis were on the screen. By the look of the bookmarks, she and Elsa spent a lot of time browsing them.

He tentatively showed her where he lived on the island-or where he’d lived as a child. She reacted with silent politeness.

He checked the other bookmarks for the island. They were marine sites, he saw. Research articles about the island.

Worth noting.

‘So you and Elsa spend a lot of time studying…fish?’ he ventured and got a scornful look for his pains.

‘Echinoderms.’

Right. Good. What the hell were echinoderms?

And then Elsa was back. Same uniform as before-shorts and faded shirt. She was tugging her curls back into a ponytail. Still she wore no make-up, and without the suncream her freckles were more pronounced. Her nose was peeling and her feet were still bare.

She walked with a slight limp, he noted, but it was very slight. A twisted ankle, maybe? But that was a side issue. He wasn’t about to focus on an ankle when he was looking at the whole package.

She was so different from the women in the circles he moved in that her appearance left him stunned. Awed, even.

He’d implied she was dishonest. There was nothing in this place, in her dress, in anything in this house, that said she was taking advantage of Zoe. His investigator had shown him Christos’s financial affairs. If they were both living totally on Christos’s life insurance…

‘How much outside work do you do?’ he said, carefully neutral, and Elsa pulled up short.

‘You mean how much of my obviously fabulous riches are derived from honest toil and how much by stealing from orphans?’

He had to smile. And, to his relief, she returned a wry smile herself, as if she was ordering herself to relax.

‘I’m not accusing you in any sense of the word,’ he assured her. ‘What’s in front of my eyes is Zoe, in need of your care, and you, providing that care. Christos’s life insurance wouldn’t come close to paying for your combined expenses.’