Bill nods. The Hoover noise upstairs has gone, and we can hear nothing except the stir of the wind in the trees outside. We exchange glances around the table. Mitch helps himself to another biscuit. Then comes the lightest tap on the door and a face appears. It’s one of the forensic team. I’ve seen him before outside McFaul’s bungalow.

‘All done, sir.’ He might have been laying a carpet or attending to the central heating.

‘And?’

‘Not for me to say, sir. I expect someone from the MIR will be in touch.’ The MIR, as I know from my previous dealings with Brett Atkinson, is the Major Incident Room.

Bill gets to his feet. As courteous as ever, he accompanies the investigator across the hall and sees him off the premises.

‘Happy Christmas to you and yours,’ he calls, before shutting the front door.

Back in the kitchen he resumes his seat with a sigh.

‘This becomes a little tiresome after a while.’ He’s looking at me. ‘Don’t you find that?’

‘I do. Of course I do.’ I hesitate a moment, wondering if this is the time and place. ‘That lovely chaise longue of yours. You know they’ve seized that, too?’

‘They have?’ This news appears to come as a surprise. ‘So where is it?’

‘Wherever they keep these things. Some laboratory or other? I’ve no idea.’

‘I gave it to Andy.’ He’s frowning now. ‘It was meant as a souvenir really. Christianne always adored it, and he knew that. Better in his little place than mine. Still …’ He shrugs. ‘Maybe they’ll return it one day. Who knows?’

Mitch wants to get back to Christianne. He’s familiar with MND. He knows it’s unsparing, remorseless, beyond the reach of any known cure, and on those grounds alone he’s astonished at Christianne’s evident resilience.

‘Was she religious?’ he asks.

‘Not at all. She was raised a Catholic, went to Mass every week as a child, got confirmed at fourteen like most of her classmates, but I gathered from Andy that Africa put an end to all that, and not – in his book – before time.’

‘This is McFaul?’ Mitch is looking at me.

‘Andy? Yes.’

‘And they were close? The pair of them?’

‘Very.’ Bill again. ‘Andy was never the most demonstrative of men, but I know he thought the world of her. He and I worked on the coastal path together, Enora may have mentioned it. He told me in the summer that she could hold her own against any man he’d ever met, and praise from Andy, believe me, comes no higher.’

‘Hold her own how?’

‘Physically. Mentally. Spiritually. In every way you can ever imagine, that woman was an inspiration. She had the light inside her. You’d follow her to the ends of the earth. Andy never used those words, but that’s what he meant.’