‘Nonsense! Of course that wouldn’t have been murder,’ he said firmly. ‘An unhappy little girl of seven who was manipulated by a strange and very sinister grown-up to take part in some dodgy ritual! No way! Put that right out of your head – but thank you for trying to identify with me all the same. You see you do say the right things.’ He smiled at her then, though she thought the expression in his eyes was bleak.

‘Did you feel a sense of injustice for being sent to gaol for what must have been an accident?’ she asked curiously. ‘I think I might have done.’

‘No,’ he answered. ‘No – quite the contrary. In a weird way it was a kind of relief. Nobody in their senses wants to go to prison, of course they don’t. It’s not an experience I’d recommend to anyone – it’s a complete nightmare – I didn’t mean that, but I did desperately need to pay a price. In some ways the sentence didn’t seem enough. It’s a terrible, terrible thing to take a human life. Nothing could bring back the guy I’d killed, but I suppose the awfulness of prison has helped me, just a little, to live with the guilt.’

‘Were you drunk?’ she asked.

‘Not on alcohol – though I easily might have been – but I was blind drunk with rage, which was quite as bad – no. . . it was worse: it was unforgivable. I’d just had a furious row with my girlfriend, and I stormed out of the house in a towering passion, roared off in my very powerful car, cornered far too fast on a twisty country road and met an oncoming car head on. The other driver was killed instantly. He hadn’t got a hope.’

‘And you?’

‘Oh, I cracked a few ribs and a few other bits and pieces of minor damage – but I smashed up my right leg good and proper. They thought they were going to have to amputate, and I had to have another big operation quite recently, immediately after I came out of prison, and was in plaster and on crutches again for several months. I was fortunate that the medicos managed to save my leg and I was incredibly lucky to escape with my own life. Not much justice in that for the other man.’

‘I’d noticed that you limp. Do you still get a lot of pain?’