The effect of this simple rejoinder was startling. The man couldn’t have expressed more satisfaction – and, yes, relief – if Wexford had brought him news of some great inheritance or that a close friend, presumed in danger, was safe.

‘Oh, fantastic! That’s really great. It’s such a change to meet some English people. We must try and get together. This is my wife. We’re called Philip and Iris Nyman. Are you Londoners too?’

Wexford introduced himself and Dora and said that they were from Kingsmarkham in Sussex. It was lovely to meet them, said Philip Nyman. They must let him buy them a drink. No? More coffee, then? At last Wexford accepted a cup of coffee, wondering what was so upsetting Iris Nyman that she had responded to the introduction only with a nod and now seemed almost paralysed. Her husband’s extrovert behaviour? Certainly his effusive manner would have embarrassed all but the most insensitive. As soon as they had settled the question of the drinks, he launched into a long account of their trip from England, how they had come down through France and Italy, the people they had met, the weather, their delight at their first sight of the Dalmatian coast which they had never previously visited. Iris Nyman showed no delight. She simply stared out to sea, gulping down slivovic as if it were lemonade.

‘We absolutely adored it. They say it’s the least spoilt of the Mediterranean resorts, and that I can believe. We all loved Dubrovnik. That is, I mean, we brought a cousin of my wife’s along with us. She was going on to holiday with some people she knows in Greece, so she flew to Athens from Dubrovnik on Sunday and left us to come on here.’

Dora said, ‘We saw you in Dubrovnik. On the walls.’

Iris Nyman’s glass made a little clinking sound against her teeth. Her husband said, ‘You saw us on the walls? D’you know, I think I remember that.’ He seemed just slightly taken aback. But not deterred. ‘In fact, I seem to remember we were having a bit of a row at the time.’

Dora made a deprecating movement with her hands. ‘We just walked past you. It was terribly hot, wasn’t it?’

‘You’re being very charmingly discreet, Mrs Wexford – or may I call you Dora? The point was, Dora, my wife wanted to climb one of the local mountains and I was telling her just how impractical this was. I mean, in that heat, and for what? To get the same view you get from the walls.’

‘So you managed to dissuade her?’ Wexford said quietly.

‘Indeed I did, but you came along rather at the height of the ding-dong. Another drink, darling? And how about you, Dora? Won’t you change your mind?’

They replied simultaneously, ‘Another slivovic,’ and ‘Thank you so much, but we must go.’ It was a long time since Wexford had seen his wife so huffy and so thoroughly out of countenance. He marvelled at Nyman’s continuing efforts, his fixed smile.