She now saw that the thing he’d blocked the passage with was a crutch, which he wielded in his left hand, the plastic cuff enclosing his forearm. He had another crutch in his right hand, and was using that one to support himself. When she looked at his legs, which were only visible from mid-shin downward, she saw white casts made of lumpy plaster. Rubber walking-attachments had been fixed to their two soles, but it didn’t look like a professional job.

Moisture gleamed on the man’s face as he leaned fiercely towards her.

‘You really a cop?’ he growled.

‘I said so, didn’t I …?’

‘You don’t look like a cop! You look like a frightened rabbit!’ He breathed slowly and heavily; more sweat trickled down his face. ‘You on your own?’

Unavoidably, Lucy glanced up the stairway on her left.

‘Like what you found up there, did you?’ he said scornfully. ‘Scared you, did it?’

‘I’m not scared.’

‘Not much, you fucking aren’t!’

She realised that another door, previously hidden, now stood open behind him. An oblong section of wall had simply folded backward, exposing a dim-lit room.

‘Something else you didn’t expect, eh?’ The man gave a strained, pig-like chuckle. ‘My panic chamber. My escape route. Call it any of those things, if you like.’

But now it seemed, despite all his bravado, that the effort of trying to frighten her was proving too much. He lowered the left crutch and leaned on it, his angry expression dissolving into one of pain-induced weariness. Filching a pair of glasses hanging down under his coat, he fitted them onto his nose, which she saw was bruised and crooked. He had bruises under both eyes too, ugly green-yellow stains descending onto his cheeks.

‘You need these things,’ he said, tiredly, ‘… in my business. You never know who’s going to come here.’ He lumbered backward a foot or so. ‘I asked if you were alone … but I’m guessing you are. No back-up’s come flying in to save you.’

Before she could reply, he manoeuvred himself around and thudded away on his crutches into the previously unseen room.

‘Not, in truth,’ he said over his shoulder, ‘that you’re likely to need saving today.’

Now was her chance to run, she realised … if she really wanted to do that. But clearly, he didn’t pose as much of a threat as she’d first thought.