When Jodie told him she was pregnant, he had been appalled, and horrified too that the adoring expression she normally gave him held a hint of fear. So, he’d spun a vision of their future with the baby, made pie-in-the-sky plans that she lapped up and wallowed in. And her adoration had resumed. Unemployed and living at home, having to part with most of his benefits for his keep, he’d little spare cash to buy Jodie gifts but he’d taken some money from his mother’s purse and bought Jodie the baby shoes. The white-and-pink shoes, oddly, were more expensive so he’d settled for blue.

He still remembered her look of excitement when she’d opened the clumsily wrapped gift. She’d laughed and taken them out, cooing over their size. ‘It’s bound to be a boy,’ she’d said, holding them over the barely visible swelling of her belly.

Jodie wouldn’t have forgotten them and when he wanted to leave something to show her that he was keeping an eye on her, the baby shoes were the first things that popped into his head. The first pair he’d left was to tell her he was there, the second… that was to show her that he wasn’t going to give up.

An obsession – or maybe, he was simply enjoying himself for the first time in his miserable life.

At 6.15pm, he was back in position on the corner of Wilfred Street for what might be a long wait.

But he was in luck. Only fifteen minutes later, he saw lover boy turn into the street looking cheerful. There was a bounce in his step, a holdall dragging one arm down and bobbing against his calf as he walked. At Jodie’s door, he pressed the doorbell and waited.

Hoping for a shag, Victor thought, his top lip turning up in a sneer. Sex held little allure for him. It was too messy. He waited for Jodie’s door to open, curious to see if she had recovered from whatever had got her down earlier.

To his surprise, the door stayed shut despite lover boy ringing again. When there was still no answer, Victor watched him bend down and lift the letterbox flap. He shouted something through and straightened with what looked like confident expectation.

But the door remained shut.

Trouble appeared to have invaded paradise. Victor didn’t believe in coincidence. This had to have something to do with Jodie’s meeting earlier. He watched as the man took out his phone, probably to ring her. He didn’t know what Victor was sure of, that she was inside, and there was something satisfying in having knowledge that this arrogant younger man didn’t have.

Victor gave into sudden temptation and walked briskly down the street. On the same side. He’d be close enough to Jodie’s lover to breathe the same air.