I filled in the gaps of the final clue at 31 down, A_T_T_M_Y, and then looked it up in the dictionary:

AUTOTOMY (noun): the casting off of a part of the body by an animal under threat. For example, the tail of a lizard.

It was done! I held it out in front of me to survey my accomplishment and began to wave it around like a chequered flag of victory. I couldn’t wait to show Dylan tomorrow. My thoughts turned to how he might help me with the next one. I would teach him the Grand Art of Cryptic Crossword Solving. The two of us sat together, dictionary at our side, decrypting clues, unscrambling anagrams, finding all the answers. We’d finish it in half the time!

And then, suddenly, a vision of the future without him in it came out of nowhere and hit me. I reeled backwards, doubled up with loneliness. I sat back down on the sofa and breathed deeply.

I would give my right arm for him to stay.

Saturday December 22nd

The bell rang and somewhere an angel was getting his wings.

Dylan and his mother were at the door. Sophie took one look at me then burst into tears. I often have that effect on people. I invited her inside with Dylan and made some tea. I arranged some custard creams on a plate. It was one of those occasions.

The police had paid a visit, Sophie said.

I asked her whether one of them possessed the most magnificent beard. She glared at me and I decided to keep quiet from that point on and let her do all the talking.

They’d been making some enquiries into Stuart’s charitable works, they told her. Stuart was out at the time, hosting a Zumbathon in aid of maimed Bulgarian circus workers.

The police had received an anonymous phone call. The mystery caller claimed that the funds Stuart had been raising from his good deeds had not quite been making it into the bank accounts of his supported charities. What’s more, many of these supported charities didn’t seem to have any charitable status at all. The following day, in the post, the police received copies of all Stuart’s bank statements for the last three years on which a number of rather sizeable deposits had been circled in red with an exclamation mark written next to each one. Also enclosed was a recent leaflet featuring Stuart and advertising a ‘Motivatathon’; the list of supposed charities featured on it were also accompanied by exclamation marks.

I noticed the faint traces of a smile on Dylan’s lips as Sophie mentioned this.