Mrs. Tretheway said: ‘I don’t fancy we do any good by wondering. Not till they know more. Whatever way it turns out, and it looks to me to be a proper mess, it’ll bring nothing but worry to us in the Zodiac: I know that much.’

She took the empty cup from Troy. ‘You’d best be left quiet,’ she said. ‘We’ll look in and see how you prosper.’

When they had gone Troy lay still and listened. The shivering had stopped. She felt at once drowsy, and horrified that she should be so.

By looking up slantways through her open porthole she could see a tree top. It remained where it was for the most part, only sliding out of its place and returning as the Zodiac moved with The River. She heard footfalls overhead and subdued voices and after an undefined interval, a police siren. It came nearer and stopped. More and heavier steps on deck. More and newer voices, very subdued. This continued for some time. She half-dozed, half-woke.

She was roused by something outside that jarred against the port wall of the Zodiac and by the clunk of oars in their rowlocks and the dip and drip of the blades.

‘Easy as you go, then,’ said a voice very close at hand. ‘Shove off a bit.’ The top of a helmet moved across the porthole. ‘That’s right. Just a wee bit over. Hold her at that, now. Careful now.’

Superintendent Tillottson. On the job.

Troy knew with terrible accuracy what was being done on the other side of the cabin wall. She was transfixed in her own vision and hag-ridden by a sick idea that there was some obligation upon her to stand on her bunk and look down into nightmare. She knew this idea was a fantasy but she was deadly afraid that she would obey its compulsion.

‘All right. Give way and easy. Easy as you go.’

‘I can’t.’

‘What? What?’

‘It’s foul of something.’

‘Here. Hold on.’

‘Look there, Super. Look.’

‘All right, all right. Hold steady again and I’ll see.’

‘What is it, then?’

‘A line. Cord. Round the waist and made fast to something.’

‘Will we cut it?’

‘Wait while I try a wee haul. Hold steady, I said. Now then.’

An interval with heavy breathing.

‘Coming up. Here she comes.’

‘Suitcase?’

‘That’s right. Now. Bear a hand to ship it. It’s bloody heavy. God, don’t do that, man. We don’t want any more disfigurement.’

A splash and then a thud.

‘Fair enough. Now, you can give way. Signal the ambulance, Sarge. Handsomely, now.’

The rhythmic clunk, dip and drip: receding.