‘Hit? No! Is that what he’s saying? That I hit him?’ The policeman gave no answer, just watched Nick as he went on. ‘He got in my face and when I went to walk away, he pulled me back by my shoulder. I spun around and he was waving his fist in my face. I did push him away and he fell on his arse, but—’

‘I can imagine Mr Cole didn’t like that very much,’ the taller officer said. A wry smile threatened the corner of his mouth and Nick wondered if they felt the same way about Mr Cole as the rest of the village did.

‘He seemed embarrassed. I would have been if I’d ended up with wet trousers in front of the village, but I swear, I never hit him. He started shouting something about unnecessary force, but I honestly just shoved him to get him away from me.’ A thought suddenly occurred to him. ‘Mr Whittaker was there. He’s the old man over there by the flowerbed. He was walking his dog at the time and saw it all. You could talk to him. He’ll back me up.’

‘You never hit him at all?’ the shorter one asked. He sounded slightly disappointed now. ‘You never made any motion to strike that Mr Cole could misconstrue?’ Suddenly brightening, he was very pleased with the word misconstrue, and Nick wondered how long he’d been waiting to say that sentence.

‘No, definitely not. I swear I didn’t hit him. My neighbours saw everything. Trish and Len Banks at Pond Cottage. Talk to them, they’ll back me up. And there were some other people from the village around, but I can’t remember who right now. Sorry. Mrs Carmichael came out of her house and told us to stop acting like idiots. I don’t know how much she saw but you could talk to her too.’

‘Right, thank you, Mr Cowley.’ The taller one scribbled in his notebook, Nick hoped making a note of Trish and Len’s address.

‘What happens now?’ Fear bubbled in his stomach.

The officer cleared his throat. ‘Well, although you didn’t hit him, you have admitted to pushing him, which means he could still press charges for assault—’

‘But I only pushed him.’

‘I’m afraid that still counts.’

‘As assault?’

The policeman nodded. ‘Common assault can be a difficult charge.’ If Nick had known that before he’d never had laid a finger on him at all. He’d never even have opened the door.

Seeing the shock on his face, the policeman softened his tone, but the impact of his words echoed around Nick’s brain. ‘If it goes to court and you’re found guilty it could mean up to six months in prison.’