‘A year.’

The word echoed inside her head. ‘A year exactly. Oh, my God – what date is it today?’

‘The twelfth.’

‘No! Is it really? Yesterday was the eleventh, then? That was the date! Our anniversary. I forgot all about it. Never gave it one single thought for months. How idiotic of me – I knew we’d been married a year, but never associated it with an actual date. Does that make any sense? Lord help me – what’s he going to think?’115

‘It’s generally the man who forgets,’ said Barkley with a little smile.

‘It’s not funny,’ moaned Thea. ‘Why didn’t he say something? Why didn’t somebody remind me? I’ll have to phone him. What am I going to tell him?’

‘Don’t ask me. It’s not something I’ve ever had to think about. I guess you could send him a text right away if you don’t want to phone him.’

Thea shook her head. ‘No, that would be cowardly. I do want to phone him, but I daren’t do it now. He might be in the middle of a funeral. I think he’s got one today.’

‘Cowardly,’ Caz repeated thoughtfully. ‘I don’t see that, to be honest.’

‘You’ll have to take my word for it, then.’ She sighed. ‘Well, I deserve whatever I get,’ she decided. ‘I’m a rubbish wife, going off and leaving him like this and completely forgetting the date we got married. I can’t imagine how I’ll ever make it up to him.’

‘Well …’ Barkley clearly didn’t like the direction the conversation had taken. ‘I think we’re done, aren’t we? Didn’t you say you had to be somewhere at two?’

‘Oh – I should have told you. I’ve got to take some police people to the place where I first found Grace. You could come as well, I suppose. If you wanted to.’

Caz shook her head. ‘No, I’d better not. No time, anyway. Now, let’s see – how much was that omelette?’

Thea realised that she could not expect a free lunch courtesy of the Gloucestershire Constabulary. In fact, she got the impression that she might be expected to pay for both meals. She made a mental note to ask Jessica 116what the protocol was for such a situation. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and settle up.’

‘No, that’s not allowed,’ said Caz sharply. She proffered a ten-pound note. ‘I think this is about right. Can you get them to give you a receipt?’

‘Okay, then.’ Thea performed the transaction, and they went back to the quiet village street. All Thea’s thoughts were on Drew and her utter failure as his wife. She wanted to phone him the moment she got back to the house, but he was highly likely to be conducting a funeral. It would have to wait until later in the afternoon. Generally, there would be no pressing commitments after about 3 p.m. ‘Thanks a lot for coming to tell me all that,’ she remembered to say. ‘Tell Gladwin I’m not panicking at the thought that I’m suspected of murder. I’m panicking a lot more about forgetting the anniversary, to be honest.’