It sounded mildly insulting but I knew what he meant. While he turned to the coffee machine, I looked around for a seat but there wasn’t a single spare table.

“It looks as if you’re providing a valuable service.”

He nodded as he steamed the milk. “I think we might be the only place open. Lots of people have just shut their doors and shored up with sandbags. The fire station have them for anyone that needs them. Some businesses have workers who couldn’t get in or were afraid they wouldn’t get home if they did.” He turned. “You know they’re looking for accommodation for those who can’t get back to their homes tonight? It’s to get worse apparently.”

“I heard. It’s hard to imagine it any worse.”

My phone beeped in my pocket and I took it out to look. Leah, who’d been lucky enough to get back to Buncrana before the flooding started, had sent me a link to a Facebook post. It was a video taken on a mobile phone. I opened it. The video showed a pedestrian gate at the front of a house where water levels had reached the ground-floor windows. Brown water flowed through the gate carrying branches, weeds and other rubbish. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and the gate came loose. It detached itself and went floating down the road. The force of the flood had blown the gate off its hinges.

“Jesus,” I said aloud, causing Tony to turn. I showed him my phone.

He shook his head in disbelief. “Where’s that?”

I looked. “Burnfoot, I think.”

“I told you, it’s worse it’s getting,” he said darkly. “We’ll be going around the square in boats, before we’re finished.”

At which point it occurred to me that I’d forgotten yet again to check the leak in the office. I’d need to go down as soon as I’d had my coffee. There was a tap on my shoulder and I turned to see Maeve, looking wrecked, dressed in a navy boiler suit.

“Are you still working?” I asked. “I was just going to call you and see how you are.”

“Ach, I’m all right.” She smiled. “No choice but to keep working, unfortunately. One of the vets can’t get here from Derry so I’m on constant call.”

She ordered a coffee from Tony to take away and we stood to one side to wait for our drinks.

“So how are you, really, after last night?” I asked, lowering my voice. “You must be still pretty shaken.”

“Too busy to think about it, to be honest. Whenever I do think about it, I try to put it out of my mind.”

“You know there was a snakebite? That’s why Harry was examining his hand so closely.”