‘GRAAAAAAANDAAAAD!’ Thomas Maddox hit him in the midriff and for a moment threatened to topple him back down the stairs. It would have taken them both, so tight was the hold his grandson now had round him.

‘Thomas! I didn’t know you were here.’

The boy backed away. He was still small in frame and build, small for twelve years old anyway. His face was a grin surrounded by freckles that mirrored the colour of his untidy mop of red hair. He was holding a games controller and gestured to a large screen behind him where some colourful-looking action was paused. ‘They sent us home for half term. The dorm’s got a leak, they need to do some maintenance or something. You wanna play?’ he said excitedly.

‘In a minute perhaps. Your dad was just going to make me a coffee.’ Thomas spun away to run and leap onto a long sofa. The game resumed with a roar of noise.

‘Jesus … Turn that down,’ Colin shouted over the noise and Thomas did as he was told.

The top floor was different from when Richard had seen it last. Then it had been a large office space, the sofa down the end to face a pull-down movie screen. The screen was still fixed to the wall but the sofa had moved and more soft furnishings had appeared. Now the right side contained a sofa bed that was extended with ruffled sheets and a stack of pillows. From the stairs they had emerged straight into a small fitted kitchen area that was new too. The coffee machine was on a breakfast bar with one high stool pushed up against it. Colin gestured for him to sit.

‘It’s changed up here,’ Richard said.

‘I guess it has. When was the last time you were here?’

‘It must be six months.’

‘Six months? That’s flown by.’

‘It has. I don’t like to just pop round uninvited. I know you’re busy.’

‘Still take your coffee white with one?’ Colin said quickly, preventing a silence that could only have been awkward.

‘Yes, please.’

Richard spun on his stool to look back out over the room. ‘So, this is pretty much a self-contained annexe in here. It’s evolved from a home office, I see,’ he said.

‘It has. I had a kitchen and a bathroom put in. The toilet’s just through there. I still use it as an office. I’ve got my laptop set up on the desk but it left a lot of space wasted.’

‘Do you sleep up here?’

Colin flicked his attention away from his coffee machine for just a moment. He shrugged as he went back to the drinks. ‘Sometimes. If I’m working late then I don’t like to disturb Justine over at the house, you know, she’ll be in bed and the last thing she wants is me waking her up.’