‘You’ve had a few of them-banned for life and. . Lily.’

‘Shit’s like luck, someone told me. It comes in threes.’

Megan had found a first-floor serviced apartment in a small block on Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach. It cost a lot, but Lily had left half of everything she had to me. Her house in Greenwich was worth close to a million and she had some blue chip shares. Even after the lawyers and financial advisers had taken their bites, Tony and I were left comfortably fixed. I’d given Megan a substantial deposit on a flat in Newtown but left before I heard what she’d bought. Along with the money I inherited some guilt, because I’d never known that Lily had made that gesture.

‘One floor up,’ Megan said as she keyed in at the security door. ‘Gives you a bit of a view and you said they

want you climbing stairs.’

‘Right, and one flight sounds about enough just now.’

The flat had two bedrooms, a sitting room, bathroom and kitchen, all fitted out in US modern. There was a big fridge, a microwave, cable TV and DVD player and recorder. Sliding glass doors opened onto a balcony that gave me a view of the pier, the beach and the Pacific Ocean. That helped to make the price very reasonable.

‘I stocked the fridge and the cupboards,’ Megan said. ‘You’ve got a month with an option to extend. How d’you like it?’

I put my arm around her broad shoulders and kissed the top of her head, which wasn’t very far down. ‘You done good,’ I said.

‘A woman comes in to clean every second day unless you put a notice on the door that you don’t want it. All paid for.’

‘I’ll have to try and make it worth her while. Grot the place up a bit.’

Her look and tone were severe. ‘Don’t skite. The way you are, you couldn’t make the bed.’

That’s Megan.

They’d told me that I’d be exhausted on my day of release. I wasn’t. We went out for lunch and then I was. I slept for a couple of hours and then went through the tedious process of the exercises. Arms up, deep breaths, rotate shoulders-again and again and again. And then it was on to the bloody nozzle and ball game-three balls inside plastic tubes. Suck to get them moving.