I needed to do things quietly, to be subtle.

Neither of which I’m good at.

After lunch, I saw that The Thing, the Walker and Big Gay Bob were still sitting in the dining room, so I joined them. Obviously one of the nurses – Mia, as it happened – joined me.

I sat and listened for a few minutes. Subtle . . .

‘How long’s that corridor out there?’ Tony asked Donna.

Donna shook her head.

‘Whatever it is, I reckon you must walk miles every day, right? You must be dead fit.’

Donna lifted her T-shirt and pinched at her belly, struggling to squeeze as much as a millimetre of fat between her fingers and thumbs. ‘Need to get this off,’ she said, looking away. ‘It’s disgusting.’

Tony grabbed a handful of his considerably larger belly. ‘Maybe I should join you. I need to start getting in shape. The Thing’s coming for me soon, I can feel it.’

While Tony started telling Donna all about his shadowy nemesis for the umpteenth time, I slid across to Bob and leaned close.

‘How did it go with the police the other day?’ I glanced across, but happily Mia, who was sitting a few tables away, wasn’t paying the slightest attention.

Bob nodded slowly. ‘The one taking the samples was a little cracker, I know that much. I gave her my phone number.’

‘What did you tell them?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Like, where were you when it happened?’

‘When what happened?’

‘When Kevin was killed.’ I punched him on the arm. It was meant to be playful, but I saw him wince.

‘I can’t remember.’ He winked at me. ‘That’s what I told them.’

‘Right . . .’

‘Because I was having a bad day and I really couldn’t.’

‘Meaning you can remember now?’

Now the nodding was a little more enthusiastic. ‘Yeah, I was watching the telly.’

‘OK.’ He’d certainly been in there when I’d left to go the dining room. Several of them were – Donna, Lucy and Ilias for starters – and I already knew that’s what they were likely to tell me.

‘I wanted to change the channel,’ Bob said, ‘but Lauren wasn’t having any of it. There was a film on the other side with Gwyneth Paltrow in it and she’s the one who talks about her fanny all the time so I really wanted to watch it. Lauren said I couldn’t, though. I remember sitting there, staring at the back of her stupid head and thinking how badly I wanted to punch it.’

‘Did you hear anyone saying anything about Kevin? Anything bad, I mean . . . before it happened?’

Bob shrugged. ‘There’s always somebody falling out with someone, isn’t there? I know Lauren didn’t like him very much.’

‘Did she say why?’