To her relief, it was Drew himself who answered the phone. ‘Hello? How can I help you?’ he said, sounding just like his normal self.

‘It’s me. When are we going to get one of those doings that tells you who’s calling?’

‘Sometime. Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine. Had an interesting day. Did my interview with the police this morning. Talked to a nice dog with a nasty man. Jocelyn showed up.’ She was carefully editing as she spoke, smoothly filling in the lunchtime hole left by the absence of any mention of Clovis. ‘How about you?’

‘One new funeral. Timmy says he’s going to be an accountant when he grows up. Your dog found a dead ferret or something and brought it in.’

‘Ferret? Surely not! It’ll be somebody’s pet, if so, and she’ll be in trouble.’

‘Weasel, then. Might be a weasel. Pretty little thing.’

‘I am missing her,’ Thea sighed. ‘And you, of course. The time is passing rather slowly. I feel as if I’ve been here for weeks, instead of three days.’

‘I can’t let him be an accountant, can I?’

‘Absolutely not. We’ll tie him in chains in the cellar before we can allow that. The nasty man with the dog’s an accountant, and he’s enough to put anybody off.’

‘Alex isn’t so bad, though.’

‘That’s what Joss said. He is quite dull, though.’

‘Should I worry about you being murdered by a nasty accountant?’ For the first time in this call she heard a repeat of the weariness and something hinting at a 211deeper malaise that had bothered her the previous day. Something flat and unengaged in his tone.

‘No. Not at all. Are you okay? You sound peculiar.’

‘Tired. I can’t get used to the empty bed. I keep waking up in a panic and not getting off again for ages.’

‘Oh dear.’ She tried to resist the feelings of guilt, irritation, concern and other negatives. She liked sharing a bed with him, she reminded herself. She almost liked the fact that he couldn’t sleep without her. But she also liked having a bed to herself for a little while. And she definitely did not like the implication that her rightful place was at his side, day and night. ‘Well, it won’t be for very long.’

‘Did they solve the murder yet?’

‘Not as far as I know. They might have found out the woman’s identity by now, with any luck. I haven’t heard anything from the police for a bit now. I met two quite nice men from the village,’ she offered, as an afterthought.

‘Two out of three isn’t so bad,’ he said.

‘What? Oh – I see. That’s right.’ She was thinking about the Jackson brothers and the way they’d seemed to have time on their hands. And then she began to wonder what she would do the next day. ‘The police have lent me a car, so I can go for a drive tomorrow,’ she told her husband. ‘I’ll have a look at Bibury, probably.’