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every morning, just replying to official enquiries about the estate,' Money complained.
    I couldn't work out what she wanted from me. She wasn't so naive: her anxiety over such routine matters had to be part of some strategy. But what was she angling for? I gave her the calm-down speech I'd used on tax evasion suspects: your tax man is your friend and your confessor, with good will all can be redeemed, and so on.
    Brian meanwhile had turned his attention back on his food. He prised a chopstick into the poached eye of his fish and used it to snap the bony plate over the gill.
    'Brian. Stop it.'
    Brian stared his mother down.
    'So, Adam,' she said, fingers fluttering at her throat. Brian unnerved her - there was too much of his father in that dead stare of his. 'How long can an appeal like that drag on?'
    Eddie laughed. 'Yes, mate. Yes. Hell, mate, yes. Hell, yes. YES! Yes mate.'
    The skull came to pieces under Brian's chopstick. He mushed the cream inside fish's tiny brain pan.
    'Thirty, forty minutes, mate,' said Eddie. 'Yes. Yes.' He thumbed off his mobile. 'Fucker,' he said. He came back to the table and clapped Brian on the shoulder. Brian stood up and followed his brother out of the room.
    Money said nothing, just let them go. Was she intimidated, or just fed up? Her face was too loose and sunken to read.
    The front door banged shut.
    'Well,' she sighed, 'let's all have a drink.' She said it as though she'd just put two toddlers to bed. Not intimidated, then - and I had the sense that her flighty-and-no-good-with-numbers routine hadn't been meant for me at all, but for them.
    7.
    She led us back into the living room. 'What'll you have, Adam?'
    I'd eaten well, so I risked a whisky and soda. Zoe went to the sideboard and made three.
    'I was hoping you could come visit me sometimes,' said Money, 'and help me with all this.'
    'It would be worth investing in some professional advice,' I said. Zoe handed me a glass. I sipped. It was practically neat. 'I can't see that I'd be much use.'
    Zoe sat on the sofa beside her mother and set down their glasses. The liquid inside them was pale, the soda water fizzing furiously. I sipped again from mine. There was barely a hint of gas. Was Zoe trying to get me drunk?
    'Of course,' said Money, 'Zoe does what she can to help.'
    Zoe shrugged.
    'You know she deferred a year at college? To help me.' Money smiled at her daughter. 'But I was never a good listener, was I?'
    Zoe returned her mother's secret smile. Had they had a row? Were they making up?
    'Like I said, professional help will be cheaper in the long run.'
    'But complicated.'
    'How so?'
    'Adam,' said Money. 'I want you to do me a favour. I want you to deal with Jimmy's affairs.'
    I stared at her.
    'Zoe stayed home to help, but I'd sooner she used the year to relax. It's been a difficult time for us all, and she deserves the time for herself.'
    'I don't think - '
    'I want her to travel, to enjoy herself.'
    'Another drink?' Zoe said. I looked at my glass. It was empty.
    'Jimmy's affairs weren't always very clear,' Money admitted. 'I don't want her getting into trouble.'
    She'd rather I did. Well, I could hardly blame her for that. I wouldn't want my child associated with Jimmy Yau's 'unclear' affairs, either.
    'What about Eddie?' I said, angling for an easy out.
    Money snorted. 'I need help, not stunts.' Her contempt for her son was appalling. She had a crudeness that had been bred out of Eva's friends, though they all came from the same stock.
    'I'm sure he could do a good job,' I said, 'given the chance.'
    Zoe set down my glass. There wasn't the faintest hint of soda in it. She knew my weakness. She wanted her mother to know it, too, for some reason.
    Still, it was my out, so I took it; I drained the glass in one. The aliens in my chest spasmed and thrashed.
    'I can't help you,' I said. 'For one thing, I've already got a job.'
    Money laughed. 'You surely don't mean the cafe.'
    'Eva's relying on me,' I said.
    For another thing, I was