Rob interrupted his reminiscences and nodded towards the sleeping girl in the corner.

“Tina could tell you more about that time. Tom was into ringing too, then. She would have been very young but I think she was a trainee in the same ringing group. She was playing with ringing pliers when she was still in nappies. By then I’d started to do more trips abroad and I didn’t see so much of him. We’ve been away a couple of times together. We went to Fair Isle, and to get the albatross on Hermaness last year, and the autumn before he had a cottage on St. Mary’s where I stayed for a few days. I usually saw him when I went to Rushy. Sometimes he let me crash out in his room at the hotel, sometimes I stayed with Sally in Fenquay.”

“Sally?”

“His girlfriend. His first and only girlfriend, I should think. Tina was always quite keen on him. At one time she followed him everywhere, but I don’t think she got anywhere. She would have scared him. Sally’s quite different. She needed him. She’s got a little boy called Barnaby.”

“Tom’s?”

“Not as far as I know. She met a few of the twitchers when she was working on Scilly, I think. I know she’s seen a few good birds. Perhaps that’s why she chose to live in Norfolk. She moved to the cottage in Fenquay when Barnaby was a tiny baby. I’m not sure how Tom first met her.”

“Were they happy?”

“Before he met Sally, Tom was a typical, celibate, single-minded twitcher. His parents were elderly and he was an only child. He was really quite shy and I never saw him with another girl, except Tina, who hardly counts. He was used to living on his own in Rushy, and though Ella mothered him and treated him as family, he must have been lonely. When he met Sally you’d have thought that he was the only person ever to have fallen in love. He was ludicrous. He wanted everything to be perfect—all passion and romance. She couldn’t live up to it. She was pretty mixed up when she moved to Fenquay. I don’t know what had happened. She took an overdose about six months ago and ended up in hospital. Tom’s been worried about her ever since. It became a habit. He was even worried about Barnaby the last time I saw him.”

“When was that?”

“A few days before he died. The Wednesday, I think. That was the last time I dipped out on greenish warbler. It was his night off. We had a beer, a few beers. He wouldn’t be specific, and I wasn’t really interested, but he was worried that Sally couldn’t cope with Barnaby and asked if I thought he should tell someone.”

“What did you say?”

“To stop worrying and to come with me to see the scops owl near Basingstoke.”

“Did he go with you?”

“No, he didn’t seem very interested. He said that he would tell someone called Jenny about the baby. I don’t know who she is and I didn’t ask. I was in no state by then to give advice.”