He nodded. ‘And then, afterwards . . . when I got back . . . it . . . well, it just shorted out. Bang. Just like that. I’d only just got clear. It nearly took me with it.’ He shook his head. ‘It was a nasty shock, I can tell you. I panicked and locked the shed door and haven’t been near it since.’

Luke turned to Matthew. ‘Residual radiation?’

He shook his head. ‘A little. Nothing to cause any alarm.’

He turned back to Henry Plimpton. ‘Did you keep the crate? Or the instructions?’

Henry Plimpton shook his head.

‘Did you notice anything unusual about the crate?’

‘Other than it containing the parts for a time machine? Not really.’

Jane peeled her elbow off the chair, examined the shiny spot with distaste and said again, ‘Why did you do it, Mr Plimpton?’

Luke gestured around. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’

‘He’s such a sweetheart,’ said North to Ellis.

Henry Plimpton flushed. ‘It may not be much to you but this is our home.’

‘Which you endangered by building an illegal time machine in it. Which subsequently blew up.’

‘I didn’t know it was illegal. I certainly didn’t know it was going to blow up.’

Luke ignored this. ‘Weren’t you suspicious at all?’

‘Well, I didn’t really think it would work. I was quite surprised when it did.’

‘And then you indulged in a spot of illegal time travel. For the purpose of cheating the lottery. What were you going to do with the money, Mr Plimpton?’

Henry said nothing.

Jane said gently, ‘Mr Plimpton . . . Henry . . . you’re due a long prison sentence at the very least. Why would you take such a risk?’

There would have been a long silence except for the bass thudding through the ceiling. Finally, his voice little more than a whisper, he said, ‘For them. For my family. So I could leave.’

Luke sneered. ‘You wanted the money so you could run away?’

‘No. I wanted the money to give to them so I could leave. So I would know they were provided for. Without me.’

‘You’ve got a girlfriend?’ said Luke in disbelief.

‘Of course not,’ he said, indignantly. ‘I’m a married man.’

Matthew could hear Mrs Plimpton crashing around in the kitchen behind him and wondered if any member of this family was capable of doing anything quietly. Or even if any of them actually knew the meaning of the world silence.

‘And then what? After you’d left them. What were you going to do?’