She whispered, “C. Brown and Co. Ltd. I found you in the Yellow Pages. How was I to know?”

“I’ve done the job. Do you want to try your lights?”

She didn’t move, apart from her hands. She began wringing her hands, the blue nails like frightened beetles wildly scurrying this way and that. Then, incredibly, in a high voice, she said, “I’m trying to think where we met. It must have been at college. Or when I was Lavinia’s PA, I met so many people, it’s hard to recall . . .”

I took pity on her. I’d been on the point of saying that it was in Russia Road, on the top of Silver’s parents’ house, on the roofs, don’t you remember? Don’t you remember what happened? Don’t you remember Jonny and Wim? I didn’t say any of those things. I hadn’t the heart to torture her further. Instead I took her through the light sequences. There wasn’t a chance she’d remember which switches worked what. Her head would be full of me and of the threat I represented. I wanted to be able to say to her that she need never see me again, never fear me, but I didn’t know how to begin. I couldn’t find any words to say what in any case would only result in her telling me she didn’t know what I meant.

“Right,” I said, “I’ll be on my way.”

“Would you like me to pay you now or will you send in your account?”

“I’ll send you the bill,” I said.

She’d closed the door before I’d reached the front gate. And the garden path was only a few yards long. I’d frightened her very badly. My usual procedure, when I’ve done a job for a new customer, is to call them a couple of days later and check that all is well. It’s a good system. In a very few cases all isn’t well and they’re foaming at the mouth because they’ve forgotten your name and haven’t got the bill yet. On the other hand, when all is well as it mostly is, calling them puts your name back in their minds as well as making them think you’re a thoughtful, caring person. I decided I’d waive this calling back in Liv’s case. It would do more harm than good. She would never call me again anyway. There, as it happens, I was wrong but I didn’t know that at the time.