Meredith shrugged. ‘I don’t know that I am – it was a lifetime ago. If she hadn’t come on to me in the first place it would never have occurred to me to want a relationship with her. She was just … very hard to say no to, and I was young and impressionable.’

‘What happened?’

She hesitated. Samantha had been locked in a small, dusty box in the recesses of her memory for decades now. ‘Nothing that dramatic … I haven’t thought about her in years.’

Paula nodded. ‘That was one of the things I loved about Ralph.’ Her eyes brimmed again. ‘He drank too much but apart from that he was so … dependable. He’d never have let me down or cheated on me. I always knew where I was with him. And now he’s not there, it feels like I’m losing my mind. I even thought there was someone in the bloody house yesterday, creeping around! I heard something, and the back door was open … I thought I was about to be murdered. Crazy, eh? If Ralph was still alive, he’d have gone to check and then given me a cuddle and told me I was safe with him.’

Tears dropped down her cheeks unchecked. Meredith thought again of the break-in in the shop, the beheaded flowers, her own sense of unease. Should she tell Paula to be careful? Maybe there had been someone in her house. But she couldn’t bear to risk upsetting her even more.

‘And there was definitely nobody there?’ she asked cautiously.

‘Of course not. Can I have some more wine?’

21

Meredith

Pete returned half an hour later, smelling of mastic and sawdust, looking tired. His expression didn’t betray anything, but Meredith could tell from the slight droop of his lips that he wasn’t best pleased to have to deal with a grief-stricken Paula on his barge – although of course he was far too kind to let her see that.

He joined them on the roof, glancing at the empty wine bottle and their flushed cheeks.

‘Nice day for it,’ he commented after he’d said hello, giving Paula a warm hug then sitting down and tipping his face to the sun. Meredith noticed he hadn’t offered Paula any verbal condolences, but she knew him well enough to understand that the awkwardness of it all would probably have brought him out in hives. And it would only have set Paula off again, so on balance it was just as well.

‘Yeah. Did you get your cabinet finished?’

He nodded. ‘Yup. Just got to let the glue dry and then varnish it tomorrow. Deliver on Monday. I’m knackered. It’s looking good, though. Check it out.’ He took his phone from his back pocket and brought up a photo, turning the screen so they could see it. It was an intricate mahogany Chinoise-influenced cupboard with inlaid mother-of-pearl cranes and flowers.