Responsibility discharged, I turn to go home. And then I point out to myself that this is a kind of shirking. Unless the guy who robbed Mick is a crockery aficionado, Elaine’s injury is my fault. I step back, and face the door. If I go in, and someone — say, the police — happen to arrive, it will not look good. But even I remember that sometimes you just have to act, and forget consequences. Can’t say I care for it, though. It’s a very long while since there was anything I felt strongly enough to act on. I guess this is a good thing.

I call again as I step inside the door, and when I walk through the kitchen area I see that there are no plates or cups that have been used, and none of the appliances are warm from use. This is snooping. Unpleasant. I’ve already accepted that she’s gone to her boyfriend’s place. And then I hear an engine, and I look back and see a car — Elaine’s — stopping out the front. Bloody hell, what was I thinking coming here? There are two people: Elaine and some bloke. Do I walk out, and say, Hi. Hope you don’t mind. I was just checking that the place was safe? Not a chance. I decide to hide. The alternative is way too creepy. I might as well be sniffing my way through her undies drawer. I squeeze in behind a massive timber-and-glass bookcase in the fireplace room where I found her the night before. I hear Elaine enter the house, jangling keys that she wouldn’t have needed.

‘Hello?’ She asks this without apprehension. I feel an idiot. I left the door open. I should just reveal myself. Elaine will be thankful for last night, and will accept that concern has made me an intruder.

I don’t believe it either.

So I wait, swallowing my breathing and trying to think of a plan. But then I hear something I can’t place. A breath, a light grunt that I can’t imagine Elaine making. The boyfriend? There has been no sound of footsteps on the loud floor. Perhaps he’s in socks. And then a faint low rumble, and it might be someone saying, ‘Ask again.’

‘Is there anyone here?’ After what she’s just been through, if she thought there was someone in her house, you would expect her to be panicked.

‘See?’ she says. ‘No one. Dave just left the door open after I was taken away.’ There is no reply.