Jude shrugged. ‘Well, if you like. Since I’ve actually come here, I’ll do that. But I’m not very optimistic that it’s going to work.’

‘What did Mummy say about me?’ Tom Kendrick poshed up the word ‘Mummy’ to give it a satirical edge.

‘What do you mean?’

‘For example, did she tell you that I was adopted?’

‘No. No, she didn’t.’

He nodded. He was a tall, large-limbed creature dressed in jogging bottoms and a hoodie, open to reveal a T-shirt advertising the tour of some band Jude had never heard of. He spread himself across a sofa in a posture of indolent ownership.

‘No, she tries to avoid telling people if she can. I think that was on Mr Kendrick’s orders, actually. He hated telling people I was adopted. Maybe he thought the fact that they couldn’t have children was a reflection on his virility. He was very old-fashioned in many ways. Always liked to have his ducks lined up in a row. Didn’t like things that didn’t fit in.’

‘Like you didn’t fit in?’

‘Oh, well done, yes.’ He slowly clapped his hands in dry appreciation.

‘Your father had a clear idea of the person who he wanted any son of his to be … and you didn’t fit into that stereotype?’

‘You’re good,’ he said with some surprise. ‘Most of the shrinks I’ve had have taken half a dozen sessions to work that one out.’

‘I’m not a shrink.’

‘Aren’t you?’ He didn’t sound that interested.

‘I’m a healer.’

‘Oh God, not another one!’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Mrs Kendrick brought in another healer’ – the word was larded with contempt – ‘to sort me out. Jeremiah, he called himself. He’s local. You know him?’

‘We’ve spoken on the phone. I haven’t met him yet.’

‘That’s a treat in store for you. Then you can get together to chant and throw your special ingredients into the same cauldron.’

Jude had heard enough misinformed slights against her calling not to rise to this one. The lack of reaction didn’t seem to bother Tom. He went on, ‘I should be flattered, shouldn’t I, to be such a rare and incurable case? Having exhausted the resources of the conventional stuff, NHS and private, Mrs Kendrick is turning to alternative medicine. Remarkable, given the views she’s expressed on the subject over the years. It’ll be Tarot cards next. I must’ve really got her scared this time.’

‘I prefer to think of what I do as complementary medicine rather than alternative medicine.’

‘Fine by me. Call it what you want, the fact remains – it’s not going to work.’

‘Did the man you called Jeremiah help you?’