I was exhausted, beaten, but I didn’t want to rest until I was at my final destination. Finn picked me up at the airport and on the way back to his flat I told him everything. ‘I’ve left,’ I told Finn. ‘Vladimir turned out to be the good guy.’ ‘He saved your life,’ Finn said simply. ‘And he saved us.’ I bitterly regretted that I’d never trusted him, that I’d used him and that, in return for my callousness, he’d rewarded me with his ultimate goodness. I was ashamed and inside I cursed the course of my life and I cursed myself. But when we reached his flat and Finn tried to hold me, I pushed him away. It wasn’t just the memory of Vladimir. There were other matters to deal with, not least the pictures of him with Karin which the Forest had shown me. I knew them to be false, but again my knowledge was no defence. I needed to confront him. We were sitting on the balcony of his apartment and watching the last of the tired, grey leaves fall from the trees across the street.
