Unsure how that would be possible unless the man had bugged the car, Frank scanned the dashboard and the sun-visors for hidden microphones or cameras. Nothing appeared to have been tampered with, but he wouldn’t put anything past Karel, so he drove on in silence until they reached the village.

In the car park behind the supermarket, he climbed out and walked round to open Irena’s door. As he waited for her to get out, he cast a surreptitious glance around, looking for signs that they had been followed, or that somebody had been sent ahead to keep an eye on them. There were a fair few people milling about. Most he recognized, but there were a few strangers, and these he kept in his peripheral vision as he unhooked a trolley from the line and followed Irena into the store.

They had reached the end of the first aisle when somebody called Frank’s name, and he froze when he glanced back and saw a woman he vaguely recognized from one of Maureen’s knitting or book groups hurrying toward him. Unsure what to do, he looked to Irena for direction, and turned back to the woman when she gave a tiny nod.

‘I thought it was you,’ the woman said breathlessly. ‘I’ve been meaning to pop round and see you, but you know how it is. Something always seems to come up at the last minute, and everything else flies out of your head.’

‘Mmmm,’ Frank murmured, struggling to remember her name. Was it Elizabeth, or Edna?

‘Sorry I couldn’t get to the funeral,’ she went on. ‘I wanted to pay my respects, but I’d just had my bunions done, so I couldn’t get out. I bumped into Mrs Caldwell a few days later, though, and she said it all went well.’

‘Mrs Caldwell?’ Frank repeated blankly.

‘Yvonne,’ the woman elaborated. ‘From Rose Cottage.’

‘Oh, yes, of course,’ Frank said, ashamed to realize that he’d as good as forgotten about his neighbour.

‘Terrible business, all that,’ the woman went on. ‘Still, I suppose it’s a blessing she doesn’t know what’s going on, because I’d be absolutely petrified if I found out I had a tumour eating into my brain and there was nothing they could do about it.’

‘Sorry?’ Frank’s eyebrows crept together.

‘Oh, didn’t you know, love? Sorry, I assumed you’d be first to hear, what with you and her being neighbours. I only found out because our Janet’s started working at Leeds General. They reckon it could have been there for years, and that bang on the head triggered it to start growing. She’s not going to last much longer by the sound of it, bless her.’