‘No, she didn’t,’ said Luke, grasping her sheet and pulling her behind him. ‘Ignore her. She’s got concussion. It makes her confess to things she hasn’t done. Neither of us did it.’

‘Well, I’m very glad to hear that.’

‘But I did,’ said Jane, shouldering her way forwards again. ‘Although I only hid the evidence because I thought he’d done it and now it turns out that he didn’t. Do it, I mean.’

The man seemed puzzled. ‘And you know this how?’

‘He told me so.’

‘Ah,’ said the man. ‘Well, then. That definitely settles it.’

He turned to go.

‘You’re not Time Police, are you?’ said Jane, more for confirmation than information. He wasn’t like any officer she’d ever seen. Not to make a big thing of it, but he was much too nice.

‘Good heavens, no. And let me give you a word of advice: this place will be crawling with them. If it isn’t already. It’s a big day today and I appreciate you want to see what’s going to happen here, but you need to be a little more discreet.’ He frowned at their apparel. ‘Much more discreet. As the more cultured among my colleagues would say, “You stand out like tits on a bull.”’

Enlightenment dawned.

‘You’re St Mary’s.’

‘I am indeed. And you are . . . ?’

‘In trouble,’ said Jane.

‘Friends of Matthew,’ said Luke, quickly.

There was a long pause as the man looked from one to the other. ‘You’re Time Police?’

Jane flushed at the incredulity in his tone.

‘Yes,’ she said defensively.

‘To be fair,’ said Luke, fairly. ‘Ex-Time Police.’

‘Not a couple of enthusiastic amateurs who’ve just turned up today to see what happens?’

They shook their heads.

‘And you’re on the run?’

They nodded.

‘From the Time Police?’

‘Our former employers, yes.’

‘I have to ask – what did you do?’

‘Well,’ said Luke, ‘in the interests of complete disclosure – shut up, Jane, I’ll explain this because you’ll only dig yourself in deeper with every word – Jane’s accused of murdering Sarah Smith, attempting to destroy evidence that she thought pointed to my guilt and refusing to cooperate with the subsequent enquiry. I’m accused of breaking her out of Time Police custody by triggering a radiation alert, stealing a pod and various other bits of kit, making an illegal jump in said stolen pod – with a known felon – oh, and I was late for the briefing last Thursday so I’m on report again.’ He paused and then said, ‘And I shot a fellow officer, too.’

‘Good God,’ said the man, faintly. ‘Well, you two have been busy little beavers, haven’t you?’ A thought obviously occurred to him and he stared at them. ‘So who did kill this Smith person?’

‘Don’t know,’ said Luke. ‘We had to leave in a hurry.’

‘I can imagine. Which fellow officer did you shoot?’