Sally rose and moved into the kitchen. While fiddling with the kettle and rooting out some bread for the toaster, she reeled back the years in her mind. Really, it was so obvious. But, as everything was done in plain sight, Phoo and Dermott managed to get away with it. Paddy and Pat were the loving couple, always squabbling, but clearly besotted with one another. That’s how the public saw them. It’s how everyone saw them. And now Paddy was dead. And Pat, sad old Phoo, was left all alone. All alone with the man who let it happen.

Sally laid a tray and carried it through. She was bursting with a thousand questions which she knew she could never ask.

‘So anyway, Sally. I beg you to be a little understanding of Phoo’s situation. She’s really been through the mill these last few months. That’s why I brought her down here. For a break. Of course her initial mourning was helped because the public always associated them as a screen couple. When she broke down at the funeral, it seemed quite natural. The family simply took it as the typical over-the-top behaviour of some mad actress with whom their own beloved real-life husband/father had worked. An embarrassingly dramatic thesp overplaying her moment. But, you see, really her grief was gargantuan.’ He took a bite from the toast and chewed it slowly and deliberately. When he had swallowed he continued. ‘Covering his tracks, naturally Dermott left Phoo nothing in his will. Not even the tiniest keepsake. So she is doubly bereft. She took it as a kick in the teeth from beyond the grave. And I know she shouldn’t take it out on you, but . . . believe me, she’s taking it out on me too. I pity poor Theresa. Every time Phoo sends a plate flying towards me and it ends up smashing on the wall of our flat she must hear it downstairs.’

‘She is angry with you, Eggy? But to me you seem to have been too understanding?’

‘Ah!’ Eggy took a sip of tea. ‘She’s furious. Poor old Phoo can’t stand the fact that it was Dermott who died, not me. She’ll never forgive me for being alive while he’s lying rotting in some North London cemetery.’

He cradled his cup in his hands and hung his head.

Sally saw a tear fall.

How to deal with this?

Up to now, Sally had thought that Phoo behaved like she did due to Eggy playing around, but it seemed they both were as bad as one another.

Now was the moment …

‘But you weren’t always the faithful old dog, darling, were you? Admit it!’

Eggy looked up, puzzled.

‘The casting director of this film?’

Eggy swallowed and gave a slight shake of his head.