So that Dan had some privacy with Marion and Bill, Ali insisted he drop her and McCulloch at a café in Nether Edge, just a short walk from his house. She’d give him half an hour or so to explain their situation, then she’d walk round with the dog and knock on the door. Dan hadn’t wanted to agree to this, he wanted her by his side when he went in, but Ali said, ‘No, you owe them an explanation without me standing there, the homewrecker.’ He wasn’t having that, he said; he’d take full responsibility for his own wrecked home, but could he be sure she’d turn up, and not bolt?

‘Bolt where?’ Ali asked. ‘I’ve already bolted here, there’s nowhere else for me to run. Just go,’ so he did, and he knew her instinct had been right when he let himself into number forty-two with the key he’d always kept, and Marion had run at him, stricken, saying, ‘Daniel, how could you? How could you?’ because Katelin had been on the phone, blowing their minds with his treachery. Blowing Marion’s mind, anyway – not much reached Bill these days.