‘What? Like dead bodies being unearthed?’ I feel my eyes go wide, as Nick grins. ‘Just joking, love! No, no surprises. It was a quite straightforward job, actually. One of those rare jobs where everything seems to go smoothly. Even the bricklayers turned up every day.’ He gives a laugh, deep and infectious, and I get the feeling that maybe the bricklayers don’t always turn up.

There is a pang of something deep in my chest and I can’t figure out what it is. I don’t want to call it disappointment, because obviously I don’t want Rupert to have done something terrible, but equally it isn’t quite relief either. Maybe I have got things all wrong after all, maybe Rupert was right, and I do see things that aren’t really there. I reach for the plans, but Nick lays his hand flat on them.

‘Why are you asking? Is there a problem with the build?’

‘No. Not a problem,’ I smooth my hand over the drawings, ‘it’s only that you said that I couldn’t put the pool where I wanted it because of the second soakaway. Is it usual to have a second soakaway? It seems a shame, that’s all,’ I say hastily.

‘Well, originally there was only one. You only really need one,’ Nick says, happy to explain, ‘but I got a call from the home owner – the gentleman, not the wife – asking me to come out and see about putting in another one. You could always put the pool in further down the garden, but like I said, it’ll cost you.’

‘But why? Why would he need a second one?’

‘He was concerned about flooding – the land is partially clay there, so there is potentially a very small risk of flooding, seeing as you’re not miles from the river, and the weather was shocking, if I remember it correctly. It was a wet winter and there’d been storms, some real torrential rain. He was worried that the original soakaway wouldn’t be able to cope – bit overcautious, really, but you know how it is, the customer is always right. He was quite panicky really, he wanted it done as a rush job. Luckily we weren’t too busy.’

‘When was this?’ That creeping sense of unease is back, prickling its way along my spine and round towards my heart, a cold fist closing over it. ‘I mean, how soon after the build was finished?’