Archie rubbed his forehead and scrunched his face up, tears falling onto the earth at his feet. He swallowed hard over and over. Eventually he looked up and gave the slightest nod. He sat carefully at the edge of the grave and Dorothy did the same. Their legs dangled into the hole like two kids sitting on a school wall at break time.

‘It was Jim’s idea.’

Dorothy felt her throat close up, tried to push out a juddering breath, placed a hand against her chest like she was having a heart attack.

Archie began rocking over the grave and Dorothy wondered if he might throw himself in.

‘We had to get rid of him,’ Archie said. ‘The longer we kept him in the fridges, the more chance we would be found out. And there were no cremations. So Jim decided to do it this way.’

‘Archie, what happened?’ Dorothy said, trying to keep her voice level. ‘How did Simon die?’

Archie seemed in a trance.

Dorothy wanted to slap him. ‘Did Jim kill him?’

Archie was crying again, tears tracing through the dirt smudges on his cheeks and dripping into the coffin.

‘No,’ he said finally. ‘Jim didn’t kill him.’

‘Then what?’

Archie wiped at his eyes. ‘It was an accident.’

He swallowed, tried to compose himself. ‘I left work one day but forgot my jacket with my keys in the pocket. I came back, went in through the garage so as not to disturb anyone upstairs. I walked into the embalming room and Simon was there. He was with someone. One of the deceased, Zoe Wilson, she was young, a suicide. He was on top of her with his trousers at his ankles. Moving in and out. Talking under his breath to her.’293

Dorothy felt the darkness close in as she placed a hand on the grass.

Archie shook his head. ‘I hauled him off. He fought me. He wasn’t even sorry, didn’t give a shit, just wanted me to shut up. We struggled, then I managed to push him off me and his head hit the treatment table. He went straight down, blood coming out, and just lay there. I watched him die. Didn’t try to save him. I wanted to be dead too, more then than ever. He was the lucky one, he got to die, he got to be nothing, invisible.’

Dorothy looked into the grave.

Archie sighed. ‘Eventually I went upstairs to get help. Jim was there in the kitchen, you were out somewhere, thank God. I made him come downstairs and I tried to explain. He looked at Simon and the woman for a long time, then we began tidying up. We put Zoe back in the fridge, then put Simon in there too, with no marker on his door, until we could think what to do.’