‘It’s coming out anyhow,’ said Dave. ‘She wants an archway instead. Should look nice,’ he reflected, staring at an imagined remodelling of the imperturbable old house. ‘The trick is not to do too much, see, with a house like this. Everything’s all been thought out already, centuries past. All we’ve got to do is get it a bit more up to date, like. Can’t change the outside, of course. Not in these parts. Perish the thought!’

‘It’s not listed, is it?’

‘No, thank God. But there’s all sorts of by-laws and neighbourhood agreements and I don’t know what. Not that Mrs I would want to mess with any of that, anyhow. She just wants things to work a bit better, so it’s not so cold in winter and sweltering in summer. She thinks there’ll be better air flow without a door just here. And there was some damp needed fixing upstairs. We’ve got quite fond of the old place, eh, Sid?’

Sid nodded, still struggling with the morning’s news. ‘Right,’ he mumbled. ‘Tiling first, we said, didn’t we?’

‘Once we’ve got the new sink in. Shame about the weather. We’ll be out seeing to the drains later on.’

‘Drains?’ Thea had an instant vision of the garden being ripped up by a mechanical digger.

‘Nothing much. Just have to get the new pipes bedded in. Then we can start the new wall tomorrow. Got another couple of chaps coming out for that. Should go up in no time. Half of it’s window, anyhow.’

‘Then we’ll have a proper back door for you to lock,’ said Sid, reassuringly.

‘Not tomorrow, surely?’97

‘Thursday morning, latest.’

‘Good, because that’s mainly why I’m here – to guard the house while there’s no proper security.’

Dave treated her to a long thoughtful gaze. ‘Sounds to me as if you’re not doing too great a job in that department, so far. Are you?’

She could do nothing but laugh ruefully and leave them to their work.

She sat in the living room again, with a mug of coffee and a portable radio she had found on a shelf. Assuming it to be defunct, she had been pleasantly surprised when it worked perfectly. Now she had it tuned to the blandness that was Radio Two, trying to adopt a matching mood. No sense in worrying, she told herself. Whatever happened next was out of her control. And even if she had felt able to do something, she would be wise to refrain. Gladwin and Drew would both agree on that point.

At ten-fifteen she received a text on her phone. ‘Still impossibly busy. Will try to send Barkley later today with update. Don’t go anywhere till then. Might have found a car for you.’

The promise of a visit from Detective Sergeant Caz Barkley gave Thea something to look forward to. The young woman had been transparently bemused by Thea and her ambivalent involvement in police murder investigations when they had first met a few months earlier. It would be good to see her again. Even more comforting was the suggestion of a car.98