‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘It wasn’t mine. It must have been taped to the top of the drum because I didn’t see it when I opened the door.’ The scepticism on his face made it hard to continue, but I did. ‘Anyway, another thing happened as well. My drain’s blocked. Someone must have taken the cover off and shoved something down there. I don’t know what because the plumber can’t come until tomorrow morning.’

Waring picked up a pen and started tapping it against the desk. ‘Let me get this straight. You think someone’s harassing you because your drain’s blocked, your pot plants seem to have moved and your washing got stained.’

My heart sank. It did sound certifiable. But now that I’d started, I had to finish. ‘It’s a pattern of behaviour. I’m involved in a dispute. And someone else who’s fighting the same person has had the same kind of issues. A blocked drain. A cockroach infestation.’

‘Hang on. Did you say cockroach?’ His expression changed. Suddenly he looked interested. ‘Is your dispute with Joyce Rooney?’

Here we go, I thought. ‘Yes, but—’

‘You’re that teacher. Ayres. I remember now.’ He was nodding.

Small towns. Small fucking towns. I squared my shoulders and said, ‘Scott told you, did he?’

‘We’re not here to get involved in a custody battle, Ms Ayres.’

He put a lot of emphasis on the ‘Ms’. That probably meant he’d heard I was a lesbian, in which case Scott would also have convinced him that I was in league with the McCalls.

God, I thought. Imagine growing up here if you really were gay.

‘Was your house broken into?’ he asked.

‘No. But—’

‘Is anything missing?’

‘No. Yes.’ I’d just remembered. ‘My flowers. Someone came into the front yard on Saturday and picked all my flowers.’

He clicked his tongue. ‘Oh, yeah. There’s a low-life doing that. It happened to me a few weeks ago—they took my wife’s dahlias. And our next-door neighbour’s peonies, poor old bloke.’ Suddenly more amenable, Waring began to rummage behind the counter. ‘I can take down the details, though there’s not much we can do until someone catches the bugger red-handed.’

‘But what about that other stuff?’ I wasn’t about to get side-tracked. ‘Are you going to take down those details or not?’