He went to stand some distance away in case of an explosion, praying the truck wouldn’t catch fire and destroy the historical material inside.

It didn’t burst into flames but something strange happened. The wheels at the outer side of the vehicle began to sink, as if the ground was giving way beneath them. The truck started tilting very slowly forward, like a majestic hippopotamus sinking into a lake.

What the hell was happening? Were the foundations of the house giving way?

No, it couldn’t be that because the front corner of the truck sank down further than the others, quite a long way, and when it stopped, it was well below the level of any foundations he’d ever seen. And the houses didn’t have cellars.

Had the crash caused a sinkhole? Could you cause one or did they just happen? Whatever it was, he could do nothing about it but wait for someone to arrive and make things safe.

The truck stopped, crazily tilted, with one rear corner right up in the air and the front corner diagonally opposite that way down in the ground. He got out his phone and took a photo. At least he had these houses insured.

He looked along the street and saw Elise looking out of the window and waved to her to stay there.

The silence seemed to throb around him and he closed his eyes briefly for a moment, then he pulled himself together and phoned Nell.

‘I heard the noise. I’m already on my way to join you. That sounded to be one hell of a crash.’

He told her what had happened and a few seconds later she came racing through the grounds to fling herself into his arms. Then they waited together for the police to arrive, not going near the truck. If there was any evidence in or near it, they didn’t want to contaminate it and though it hadn’t exploded into flames and the engine had cut out, thank goodness, the smell of petrol was still very strong.

Elise came out of Number 3 with mugs of coffee and the three of them stood waiting for the police to arrive.

‘That truck looks like it belongs in a surreal painting,’ Elise commented at one stage.

‘I can’t understand why that side of the house hasn’t caved in completely,’ he said a couple of times.

Mostly they were silent.

When they’d finished Elise took the mugs from them. ‘I’ll go and slip some clothes on and put these in the kitchen.’

Angus and Nell walked up and down the street, listening for help coming. The worst was that they couldn’t do anything but watch the truck and pray it wouldn’t explode.

If this was rapid attendance, it was taking a hell of a long time.

Chapter Thirty-Two

As Adam was driving Stacy back from the emergency centre, a youth running flat out round a corner nearly bumped into them and he had to brake hard.

The youth leapt aside with an athlete’s grace. When this caused his hoodie to fall off, he yanked it quickly back to cover his face, but Adam had seen him clearly.