Lin and Wanda were firm friends. Both were Australian, both around forty, they had ended up on a small island in the Caribbean, freelance administrators thrown together amid a group of about fifty to help the government of a community that lacked skills and education. That was what I was doing there, too, but as a building consultant. The expats used to meet in a small bar near a beach, and we quickly got to know one anot...

“No, I’ll be there,” Meribal said into the phone. “ I just can’t stay very long today, that’s all. I know, I have too. I’ll be there. Give me twenty minutes.” She gently put the office phone down and walked quickly into the toilet, where she spat as much as she could onto some folded tissue paper and wiped herself around the back. The front she had already done and anyway, it wasn’t so important. “Back in an hour,” she sa...