‘I’ll get it done by four and give you a ring, if I may? These chaps I’ve got on ’old, they’ll be wantin’ to know. Must be pretty grim, not knowing if you’ve got money coming in or not.’

Will nodded. The guy actually seemed honest. ‘I know I sound like my wife, but any rough idea on a price? I promise not to hold you to it.’

The man rubbed his chin. ‘Off the top of my ’ead? Somewhere in the region of a grand, say one thousand two hundred tops. I get the materials at trade price, and I’ll pass that on to you.’

Will remembered one of his mates at the station paying far more than that for a patio area the year before. A skip alone cost over a hundred pounds.

‘Look, if the estimate comes out near that figure, you can go ahead. My wife seems to have set her heart on getting this done. If it’s a lot more, perhaps we may have to think again, but—’

‘It shouldn’t be more, Mr Stonebridge. That was my outside cost, but I’ll ring you later.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Gawd! I ’ave to go! The lorry is my uncle’s. My own truck is in dock and I’ve pinched his vehicle for the morning. ’E’ll kill me if he don’t ’ave it back by dinner time. Thank you for the possible business. I’ll ring you later.’

Watching the old lorry disappear in a cloud of dust, Will stood wondering what to do. He looked up at Kate’s window but there was no one there.

He went inside, climbed the stairs, and stood outside her room. He called her name softly, hesitantly.

She bade him come in. Her back was to him, and she was frantically sketching. As he approached her, she closed her pad and turned to him, wearing a strange smile.

‘Hello, Bear. What do you fancy for dinner tonight? I’ll cook.’

* * *

Liz threw down her pen and looked at Matt. ‘Gerald Grove does have a skeleton in his cupboard! I knew it!’

When they weren’t watching over Emilia Swain, they had spent the past week making covert enquiries into the man that Will had found so troubling. Now, after exchanging countless emails with the West Country, Liz had finally found what she’d been looking for. ‘He was involved in an investigation regarding a boy of nine who was abducted.’ She read from the printout that was just coming through. ‘Grove lived in a village on Exmoor, and he fell under suspicion because he’d been in a spot of trouble a while before this case. It was peeping-Tom activities, nothing he could be nicked for, but because of it, he was questioned on suspicion of abducting the lad.’

Matt whistled. ‘So, our Will’s copper’s nose was spot on.’