I’d gone upstairs to boil some water to clean his leg, and I was standing in the hall getting creeped out by the thought of a murder happening there when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I nearly had a heart attack but it was only Yuri. ‘I need bath, Joe,’ he said. He was right about that. He stank. ‘Find a bathroom and get something you can use as a towel. I’ll heat you some water.’ He pointed up to the landing. ‘Two doors from stairs there is bathroom.’ ‘OK.’ He’d obviously been getting to know his way around. I dug out the biggest saucepans I could find, boiled some water and made a couple of trips lugging them upstairs. The bathroom didn’t have any windows so I stood the torch on the floor, filling the space with rings of dim blue light. The walls looked like they were covered in white marble, there was a matching bath sunk into the floor and all the taps were gold and shaped like dolphins.
