“Thanks, Charlie,” I said, taking the protesting cat from him. “I hope he wasn’t too much bother.”

I took Charlie’s non-committal response to mean that he had been quite a bit of bother. He grunted. “I hear the roads have reopened.”

“One of them anyway. I came around by Culdaff. Hopefully we’re on our way back to normal,” I said.

“Aye.” He looked out at the still completely submerged green. “It’s been a bit wet all right.”

I put Guinness onto the ground, and he followed me down Charlie’s path and back up our own, lifting and shaking his paws whenever he had to step into a puddle. On the doorstep, he wrapped himself repeatedly around my legs, nearly tripping me up as I turned the key in the lock. I bent down and rubbed his head. I was pleased to see him too.

But a shower, I thought. I must have a shower. And some food.

Chapter Twenty-One

I DUMPED MY keys in the kitchen, turned on the heat and headed upstairs, grateful for the fact that I had an electric shower. I spent a good ten minutes in there, reasoning that water wasn’t exactly at a premium now, though I was sure the boffins would correct me on that. I washed the sand from my hair and tried to sort through my thoughts, forcing myself to think, not about what had happened over the past few days, but the week ahead. Tomorrow, being Monday, I’d be back at the office, and, as I’d remarked to Jude, I suspected there’d be many fractious people having rows with their insurance companies over flood claims.

But as I stepped out of the shower, dried myself and put on some clean clothes, I found my thoughts inevitably returned to the events of the weekend. Molloy hadn’t called me back about the man at the beach and I was worried about Lissa. I also wanted to ask her about Sue. I decided that once I’d eaten, I would go and see her at the hospital. I glanced at the pile of dirty clothes I’d left on the chair, including Molloy’s boxers, and remembered I had to give him back his key. Maybe I could kill two birds.

A cup of tea and some tinned soup later and I was driving back the way I’d come. It was amazing how quickly the floods were abating now that it had finally stopped raining. On my way back through Culdaff, I noticed that there were a few cars about, people venturing out for a Sunday evening drink now that the weather was better.