‘Kind? She’s maybe doing penance. She’d have been in the poorhouse if not for her husband and his bright ideas. More to the Swiss than yodelling and cuckoo clocks, believe me. He aint pretty but he’s interesting. Gave a good lecture at the Women’s Institute, which you’d have known if you bothered coming along.’

I turned my sigh into a cough and then shivered, exaggeratedly, as a silence began to stretch between us.

‘I were sorry to hear of Fairfax,’ she said. ‘They say it was sudden.’

‘Aye,’ I said, and it sounded too much like a shrug to be decent. ‘Janet and me were opening the curtains at his place this morning. Was all I could do not to run out the door.’

‘Was a good man,’ said Pat, nodding approval. ‘Knew him since I can remember. Always had a twinkle in his eye. You find the envelope?’

I shook my head. ‘Don’t think the bugger ever planned on dying. The place is a pigsty.’

‘No wife these past years,’ said Pat, shaking her head at this sorry state of affairs. ‘Kept himself smart though. Always shaved and scrubbed.’

‘That silly car,’ I said, falling into the easy back and forth.

‘Bought it for Christopher, if you ask me.’

‘Aye, that’s what everybody said. Maybe he just wanted it for himself. Either way. Least he died driving something he was proud of.’

Pat considered this. ‘You think he would still be alive if he had a more sensible car?’

‘I don’t know much about cars,’ I said, wiping rain from my face. ‘But you can still die if you drive a tank. Sometimes accidents happen.’

Pat nodded her head in agreement. ‘Was a shock for poor Ern,’ she said, widening her eyes.

‘Ern?’

‘Ernie Glendinning. Works at the base. He found Fairfax, did you not know?’

I thought back. Had John told me? Had Chivers mentioned it? Did I even ask?

‘Aye, he’d taken a late lunch and was heading back for the afternoon shift. Saw the car there in the middle of the road, windscreen smashed. Got out in the middle of the gale and found Fairfax on the road. Sorry sight, so I heard. Went right through the windscreen after he hit the tree.’

I closed my eyes. Couldn’t help but picture it. The Spadeadam road was a desolate place; a curled grey rope dropped into acre upon acre of forest and bog.

‘He got some of the men down from the base soon as he found him,’ said Pat, pushing herself further back into the wall as the rain redoubled its efforts. ‘He was already gone. They called Chivers from the base. Harland came and towed the car. Ambulance came from Haltwhistle. You’ll be looking after the arrangements, I presume.’

Would I? Had that already been assumed? I supposed there was nobody else. I was the closest thing to family that Fairfax had.