'He said something about "nearly crashing", and "ten-tenths shit across the airport", things like that, nothing that made any sense.'

I remembered she thought he was an airline pilot; we always have to make something up. It doesn't matter which girl we're with, they never know who we are. Nobody does.

'Did anything in particular start him off?'

'Not that I can remember. He came in looking sort of done-up, and wouldn't have a drink, and wouldn't say what was the matter. Then he slowly went wild.' She drank some more brandy and choked on it a little. 'I've got to be up at six, you know — can you take him away so I can get some sleep?'

I watched North for a bit. He was looking more settled now, with a strange half-smile on his face as if he'd quietly come round to thinking that the only thing to do was laugh the whole thing off. The smile didn't look very good because he was still white to the gills.

'You'll be okay now,' I told him and looked round for the phone.

'Can I use this?'

She nodded and I picked up the receiver while North pulled himself out of the chair and said 'Excuse me,' and went quietly off to the bathroom and shut the door and blew his brains out, by the sound of it.

Connie screamed just once and I got across the room very fast and tried the bathroom door and found it locked and took three paces back and then went at it, going in with a lot of momentum left, with the door stopping halfway because he was on the floor. Then I came back and told her not to go in there, and picked up the receiver from where it had dropped, and dialled the number.

'North has just killed himself and there's been a lot of noise, so we'll need smoke out.'