Grant had no idea what Francis did for a job. He was younger than Grant was, probably in his early forties. He didn’t seem to have a regular office job, never left the house first thing in a suit or anything like that.

Snoopy neighbour? Look who’s talking, Grant thought, realising then how much attention he’d been paying to Francis over the last few weeks.

Takes one to know one.

‘Yeah, Ed, I know the Belfry.’

‘Awesome. Well, you know, if you fancy a game? I don’t know that many people down there yet, but I could introduce you to some of the crowd. Would be good to get to know you a bit better, us being neighbours and all.’

‘I’m a bit busy this week to be honest,’ Grant said.

‘Oh, right, yeah. But I’ve actually got a game first thing tomorrow, eight a.m. I noticed before that you’re normally around Wednesday mornings, aren’t you?’

Grant clenched his jaw for a couple of seconds. Francis was right. Did he miss anything? Wednesday was Grant’s quietest day, and he usually either worked from home all day or headed to the university only after lunch.

‘Yeah, ok, why not?’ Grant said, surprising himself somewhat, but in a way it felt easier to just agree and get Francis to bugger off. ‘Would be good to dust the cobwebs off the clubs.’

‘Nice one,’ Francis said, looking over his shoulder to Grant’s old Merc. ‘We can pop over there in my Range Rover. Only had it a couple of weeks though, so we’ll have to be careful not to get it too muddy, but there’s plenty of room in there for the two of us and our bags.’

‘That’s no way to talk about my wife,’ Grant said.

Francis didn’t seem to get the joke. Really Grant wasn’t sure why he’d even attempted the humour. Was it because on some level he was trying to impress the flash Francis?

‘I’ll pick you up just after seven?’ Francis said. ‘That’ll give us time to get down there and warm up a bit.’

‘Not a problem, I’ll see you then.’

Grant went to push the door closed and Francis once again looked over Grant’s shoulder, no doubt looking to see if there was anything of interest happening within the madhouse.

There wasn’t.

Grant shut the door and returned to the kitchen. Annie had already disappeared and Grant felt a little uneasy that the awkward conversation with her had been left unfinished. Mary was just finishing cleaning up.

‘Who was that?’ Mary asked, looking slightly suspicious.

‘Ed Francis.’

Mary raised an eyebrow.

‘He wants me to play golf with him. Tomorrow.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I said yeah, why not.’

Mary glowered at him, her eyebrow crawling up her forehead as she showed her disapproval.