“What did they do?”
“Three of them tipped him in along with the sun lounger he was lying on. They didn’t know he couldn’t swim, but it was a reckless thing to do. Ru hit his head and was knocked unconscious.”
“How come he couldn’t swim? Not that it would have helped if he was unconscious, but…”
Jasim hesitated. Though since everyone there already knew… “When Ru was eight, his uncle told him his parents and brother were dead and took him to live on a farm in Ireland. They weren’t dead, but they thought Ru was. Ru was never allowed off the farm until his uncle had to go into hospital and the truth came out. It was in the papers.”
“Fuck! How did you meet him?”
“Horse auction in Wicklow. He was there to say goodbye to horses he’d looked after for years and worried about two of them being parted.”
“And you bought them?” Joaquin gave him an incredulous look.
“Yes, I know. Caught me at a weak moment.”
“Do you have weak moments?”
“I blame it on turning forty.”
Joaquin laughed.
Leave it. Don’t push. Don’t make me lie.
Joaquin looked as if he were going to say something, but set off on a fast front crawl and Jasim joined him.
