If she said it fast enough, perhaps it wouldn’t sound so bad. But she couldn’t keep the shudder out of her voice.

‘Oh, Mez, come on, it’s not ideal, but worse things happen at sea…’

‘It IS worse!’ she wailed. ‘Way worse. Now he’s dead.’

‘What?’

‘I think he’s had a clutcher. We went for a walk afterwards, he showed me inside the ice house – you know, that cellar in the grounds. I’ve never been in there before. I left him there taking photos, but dropped my front-door key. I just went back to get it and … He’s there, dead. He’s either had a heart attack or someone went in and strangled him after I left. He looks all purple and puffy but then he looked like that beforehand, cos he was pissed and anyway, how unlikely is that? I mean, who would strangle him?

She was gabbling.

‘Slow down.’

She took a deep, gasping breath, trying to speak more slowly. ‘He can’t have been strangled, that’s ridiculous. There’s no-one even here apart from security! He must have had a heart attack. I came out of the ice house, walked home, realised I’d dropped my key, went back, and he was lying on the floor. I did CPR on him for ages, but nothing. It must have happened right after I left. I was only gone a few minutes!’

Tears flowed down her cheeks. She couldn’t even remember the last time she cried.

‘But what do I do? I don’t know what to do! I can’t call an ambulance. Nobody must know. What if they think I killed him? I accidentally scratched his face – he sneezed and my ring caught it. The police might think we were fighting!’

‘Mez. You can’t leave him there. Listen, don’t panic. I’ll come and meet you, and we’ll call together. Give me ten minutes. I just need to lock up the workshop. I’ll come on my bike. The van’s being MOT’d.’

Meredith sniffed hard. Perhaps they wouldn’t care about her DNA. No need to be suspicious from a heart attack, surely?

‘The main gates’ll be locked. Come in through the back gate – you know, the one near the orchard that goes to the staff car park? Code’s 4989.’

‘Right. Sit tight and I’ll be there ASAP.’

‘Thanks. I’ll be at home. Love you.’

He was gone.

Meredith had been waiting for him to command her to call the emergency services, do the sensible thing – and he hadn’t. Without her explaining, he understood why she was ringing him instead of 999.