The result showed foxes and badgers and then lots of smaller animals – squirrels, mice, voles. These were far too small. What she’d seen was much bigger. Perhaps the animal wasn’t indigenous to these parts but had escaped from a zoo or private collection.

She typed: What animals can walk upright? into the search engine. A page came up with photographs of primates walking on their back legs. Kangaroos, bears and some lizards, she also learnt, occasionally went biped. It certainly wasn’t a lizard or a kangaroo. She supposed it could have been a small bear or a monkey, or was she getting carried away? Surely they wouldn’t be able to survive in the woods? Unnerved and alone, her imagination was getting the better of her. Then a picture of a fox leaping over a fence appeared on the webpage and it looked familiar. As it stretched up into its leap, it was standing on its hind legs. Yes, of course. That was the most likely explanation. The dark shadow she’d seen was a leaping fox. If it came to the cottage again tomorrow, she’d be braver and go outside for a closer look.

Jan closed the webpage and was about to reply to an email when something hard hit the window. She jumped. What the hell! With her heart thumping wildly, she scrambled off the sofa, away from the window, and stared at the curtains, petrified, waiting for another sound. Silence. Then she heard Tinder’s bark at the back door. Thank goodness. He was back. Had that noise been him? She rushed to let him in, then quickly closed and relocked the door. ‘Good boy,’ she said, kneeling to pet him. ‘You’re safe.’

As on the previous night, he was very pleased to see her, although he hadn’t been away for long. He rubbed against her and licked her hands.

‘What was it? A fox?’ she asked him.

Tinder stared back uncomprehendingly.

Then she saw it – what looked like a flake of food lodged in the fur by his mouth. She picked it off and smelt it. It was cooked meat, possibly sausage. But she hadn’t given him meat to eat. He had dry dog food and only that. Camile had been most specific in her instructions that this was the only food Tinder was allowed, as it gave him a properly balanced diet. She’d left a dozen large sealed bags of the dry dog food in the cupboard under the stairs, more than enough for six months. One scoop in the morning and one at five o’clock, she’d written. No titbits or leftovers, as they were bad for him.

Jan had followed her instructions exactly, so where had Tinder got cooked meat from?