‘It’s about Margaret.’

‘If you know anything about Margaret you should tell the police.’ She added, a sudden inspiration: ‘They’ll be here soon. They want to search her room.’

‘Can I see it?’ The words fired from his mouth like a shot. It was as if they’d formed themselves without his thinking about them.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Can I see her room? Where she lived?’

‘Of course not!’ She was less scared now than exasperated. He seemed rather old and confused, sitting in the high-backed chair, his hands on his knees like a resident in a care home. ‘I don’t have the key and, besides, it’s private.’

Then she saw that he was crying. Large round tears rolled down his cheeks. It occurred to her that he was so unused to weeping that he didn’t know what to do with them. She pulled a paper handkerchief from her pocked and walked across the carpet to give it to him.

‘I didn’t realize you were such friends,’ she said, more gently.

He took the tissue and dabbed at his face. ‘Margaret Krukowski worked for me. A good while ago. My father was still alive and we had an office on the yard then. She kept our books, sent out the invoices, answered the phone in the office, took the bookings.’

‘Ah,’ Kate said. ‘I didn’t know.’ She thought there were lots of things she didn’t know about Mardle. Her children belonged to the place more than she did. Ryan especially picked up things at school. Secrets about other families. Rumours about the businesses in Harbour Street. Stuck in this big house, Kate learned very little and Stuart took no interest at all. He seemed entirely self-contained and only needed his music and her. She got her gossip second-hand, through the kids and from overheard snatches of conversation in shops and cafes.

‘Things got tough.’ Malcolm was talking almost to himself. ‘We had to let her go. And there was a fire, so we lost the office too.’

‘I’m sorry.’ What else was there to say?

He stood up suddenly and the power of his movement, the size of him, frightened her again, so she backed away from him.

‘The funeral,’ he said.

‘I don’t know when that will be,’ Kate said quickly. ‘I suppose we have to wait for the police to release her body.’

‘But I’d like to help,’ he said. ‘Whatever needs doing.’

She saw that he was close to tears again. ‘I’ll let you know. Really.’ She walked towards the door, hoping he would follow. He made his way after her, but stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked up. For a moment she was scared that he’d become unpredictable again, that he’d clamber up the stairs towards Margaret’s room. She had the sense that he had been in this house before and knew his way around.