‘It’s probably cos we watched that movie,’ I said. ‘Pretty scary stuff.’ I avoided looking at Hannah after yet another lie. I busied myself by putting on my floral dress, purple leather jacket and quickly applying my make-up.

‘You know what’s scary,’ said Hannah. ‘School.’ I nodded as I swept on some lip gloss, relieved she’d changed the subject. ‘I don’t want to go tomorrow,’ she added.

‘Only three weeks left till the summer holidays,’ I said excitedly. ‘Then you can come visit me!’

‘Or you can visit me,’ said Hannah. She hadn’t really taken to Avarna – even the beautiful scenery hadn’t swayed her. She much preferred the city. ‘Oh, I forgot to say, I’m in a play next week, if you wanna come see it.’

‘What play?’ I asked.

She hesitated, and so I immediately knew what the answer was going to be. One of the downsides of having an actress for a best friend is that you are pretty much guaranteed to see at least six productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in your lifetime. A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in New York. A Midsummer Night’s Dream with an all-female cast. A Midsummer Night’s Dream with robots.

‘This is actually a really good version,’ said Hannah, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

‘I’ll be there,’ I said with a sigh.

‘You won’t regret it! Well, you might… but I’ll thank you in my Oscar speech.’

‘Get some beauty sleep,’ I said, throwing the covers over her head.

‘See you later,’ she said with a giggle.

I texted Sergeant Lawlor to ask where exactly we were going to meet.

Ming’s, he texted back.

That’s weird, I thought. Wasn’t it a little early for Chinese fast food? But I trusted that the strange venue was for a reason. I stepped off the tram and walked down Grafton Street.

There were only a few people around that morning, mostly tourists pulling suitcases or staff going into shops. There was a busker playing old Irish songs near Bewley’s, and others were tuning their instruments.