“In view of the increasing tendency of delegates to sneak off before conference ends at Friday lunchtime, SOS is considering methods of enforcing delegates’ attendance. We await with eagerness reports of experiments in the probation service with electronic tagging; not that we imagine for one minute that we would want to know exactly where people are at crucial moments. Meanwhile, as a trial deterrent, this year delegates will not be paid their conference lunch expense allowance until noon on Friday. So be there or be poor.”

from “Advice for New Delegates”, a Standing Orders Sub-Committee booklet.

It was hard to imagine the crumpled concertina of red metal had ever been a Ford Escort. It didn’t look as if it could ever have been longer than a Mini. The signpost it had hit first had sliced the car almost in two, before the brick wall of the shopping center had compressed it to half its length. As she watched a salvage crew struggle to get the wreckage away from the shattered wall, the churning in Lindsay’s stomach had nothing to do with the amount of alcohol she’d consumed. She turned away and threw up unceremoniously in the gutter.

When she recovered herself, she saw Paul had turned away and was staring unseeingly at the traffic.

“I was passing when it happened,” he said emptily. “I’d popped out for five minutes to buy some rock for the kids. He came round the corner at the end of the street there like a bat out of hell. The car was fishtailing all over the road. I didn’t even realize it was Ian. If I thought anything at all, I thought it was some teenage joyrider.”

Lindsay tentatively put out a hand and touched Paul’s arm. He gripped her fingers tightly.

“He just kept going faster and faster. Then he tried to take the bend, but he must have been doing seventy, and it’s a really tight turn. He was completely out of control. He just kept going faster and faster.” Paul shook his head. “Then I saw his face, in a kind of blur, and I realized it was Ian. I knew he didn’t have a chance.”

“Let’s go somewhere and have a cup of tea,” Lindsay suggested gently, steering Paul towards a nearby café. Luckily, it was the lull between morning coffees and lunches, and they had no trouble finding a quiet table. Because Paul’s dramatic announcement hadn’t penetrated the general laughter, Lindsay had been able to get the shocked branch chairman out of the hall before he could cause general consternation. Outside the conference, he had simply said, “Come and see,” and led her in silence to the scene of the accident.