He shook his head. ‘No, no, not tea. Pour me a whisky.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Are you deaf? I said pour me a whisky.’

Anne hurried to fetch his drink and he took a gulp before speaking. Holding the tumbler in the air, he gazed at the amber liquid through the glass.

‘What’s happened?’ Anne prompted him.

‘I’m telling you, they could have killed someone.’

‘Who?’

‘That loud-mouthed hooligan who follows me around heckling me whenever I speak in public. You know who I mean?’

‘Yes.’ Remembering the man who had threatened her husband in the library car park, Anne nodded. ‘Yes, I know who you mean. So what did he get up to this time?’

‘That imbecile and his bloody henchmen! I was driving through the car park and they must have followed me. Before I knew what was happening, he threw eggs at my car!’

‘What?’ Finally Anne was startled out of her preoccupation with Jessica and Daisy and listening to him. ‘You mean while you were driving?’

‘Yes, the car was moving. I could have been killed. I could have killed someone else.’ He shook his head in disgust and finished his whisky. ‘If I wasn’t a steady driver, there would have been a collision!’

He held out his empty glass and waggled it at her. Without remonstrating, she refilled it with a generous second slug.

‘David, you have to tell the police. That man must be stopped. The police will speak to him, give him a warning, and he’ll back off. This has gone too far.’

David nodded. ‘Yes, they can see the evidence for themselves. If I call them before I get the car washed they’ll see the mess that idiot’s made of my car.’

‘And you can show them that letter,’ Anne reminded him.

David sniffed and threw his shoulders back, feeling revitalised. ‘Good thinking. Have you still got it?’

For answer, Anne stood up and left the room, returning a few minutes later with the letter. David made a call to the police station and barely ten minutes later a constable arrived. She listened intently to David’s account of recent events.

‘Have you been drinking, sir?’ she asked when David finished speaking.

He sniffed, muttering about the ineptitude of a police force that sent a junior officer to hear his report.

‘Had you been drinking before the incident took place?’ she repeated patiently.

‘Listen, Constable, I had a drink when I got home, yes. You can see that for yourself,’ he added, indicating the empty tumbler on the coffee table. ‘But I hadn’t been drinking before I got home, and certainly not while I was driving, if that’s what you’re trying to imply.’

Anne looked tense, worried by the hostile turn the conversation appeared to be taking.