‘And so long as I’ve done nothing about it I – we – have a hold over him. As for what we’d want him to feed back to them in terms of reactions here, he couldn’t let us down because – so long as we brief him in such a way that he doesn’t realise he’s being briefed, letting things slip and so on – he wouldn’t know he was being set up. If we can get clearance.’

Sonia raised her glass. ‘If.’

He sensed something as he opened the front door that night. It wasn’t just that Sarah was home – that he expected as he was later than usual – but he had a strong impression of something else, of another presence. There were no voices, no movements, but there was a tension in the silence. He paused on the doormat, still holding the door handle. Then he heard Sarah’s quick step from the kitchen as she came round the staircase into the narrow hall. She paused, smiling but with her eyes fixed urgently on his as if willing him to something.

‘Charles, hello,’ she said brightly. She rarely used his name when they were alone. ‘Guess who’s here – Daniel.’

Daniel was sitting at the kitchen table wearing faded blue jeans and a heavy grey jumper frayed at the cuffs and flecked with white paint. He wore his scuffed brown working boots and had a tool-bag at his feet. His red hair and beard were tousled and dusty, as if he had been crawling through a cramped attic. He hadn’t taken off his boots when he came into the house, a convention he had adopted since his conversion. He half rose when he saw Charles, smiling sheepishly and holding out a limp hand.

‘Daniel – nice surprise, good to see you.’ Charles felt he sounded unconvincingly hearty.

‘Daniel’s in a spot of bother,’ said Sarah, speaking as if she were making an announcement on stage. ‘He’s come for a cup of tea and advice.’ She had a glass of white wine before her.

‘I’ll have what you’re having,’ said Charles. He put his overnight bag in the hall and sat. ‘Advice is the easy bit, at least for the advisor. What’s the problem?’

Daniel looked solemn. ‘The police have raided our house. They’re still there. They walked in behind Akela when she got back from work. They said they don’t need a search warrant if serious crime is suspected.’

‘What serious crime? What are they looking for?’

‘Me, among other things. They’re taking knives from our cutlery drawer and are going through my tools.’

‘But what’s the crime— suspected crime? Haven’t they said why?’

‘I don’t know. I only know what Akela said when she rang me while it was going on. They may have said now.’

‘What about these knives? Nothing illegal, is there?’