‘Just about. Solid provision for wife number one and daughter Judith. Enough not to make it worth their while to challenge. Quite a few donations here and there-the fund to build a new synagogue at Bondi, the Fred Hollows Foundation-that sort of thing. The rest to me. Want to know how much?’

‘No,’ I said.

The flat in Kirribilli turned out to be the top floor of a three-storey block housing three flats on each of the other two levels. So the Fleischmans had three times the space of anyone else as well as a roof garden and a view that might not have been as good as the Prime Minister’s or Governor-General’s but would do. Directly across from the Opera House with plenty of the Bridge in sight on the right and a good sweep down the harbour to the left. All this was unveiled for me after I refused the offer of a parking place under the building and left the car in the street. Claudia explained that she didn’t drive and didn’t know what had happened to Julius’ Merc. ‘Maybe Wilson Katz has it,’ I said.

She inserted a security card in the device in the high wall that surrounded the apartment block and the gate slid silently open. ‘Maybe. I couldn’t care less.’

As we climbed the stairs I wondered whether her attitude indicated that she’d always had money or just that she acquired so much of it that it ceased to matter. I had no idea.

‘Julius bought this block a few years ago. From a failed bookmaker, I gather. That pleased him. He had good people work on it and it turned out pretty well. He refused to put in a lift. Said the stairs were good for his heart and my legs.’

She laughed, I laughed and I just managed to stop myself from looking at the limbs in question.

‘He amused you then, Julius? You liked him?’

She didn’t answer. We crossed a broad expanse of carpet to a door where she used the card again. We went into several air-conditioned rooms that contained furniture, paintings, vases and other things that looked like money.