He listened to her explanation, and put his arm around her to support her into the living room. He propped her on the side of a deep chair while he cleared the books piled on the seat, then helped her into it. “Lean right back for a second, Siân. I want to have a quick check for any real damage.” He pulled a pocket flashlight from his jacket and flashed her eyes until she flinched, happy with the reaction. Then he switched on her reading lamp, turned her face toward it, and examined the cartilage of her nose and the cut on her cheek. “This needs a butterfly suture, but it shouldn’t scar. He had a ring on.” She nodded. “Which part of you hit the wall?”

Siân indicated her left shoulder and rubbed the upper arm area tenderly, her face contorting.

“Serious pain?”

“It hurts; but I don’t think it’s broken.”

Alex tested its strength, asking her to pull against his own hand, which she managed. “No. Nor do I. Tell me about it?”

“I went out for wine. When I came back you’d rung. I heard the doorbell, thought you were just early, and I pushed the buzzer. When he knocked I didn’t check the spyhole—the light’s out in the hall. But the security chain was on. I turned the lock, then he threw his weight against the door. The chain just split away. He shoved past me, hit me, told me not to move. Then he did this…” She looked around at the mayhem, and started to cry for the first time. “I thought if I called the police he’d come back, and hurt me seriously.”

Alex was gently moving her neck from side to side and seemed satisfied that her spine was undamaged. She hadn’t let go of the jacket. “How long was he here, Siân? What did he look like? Heavily built?”

“I don’t know, Alex. Twenty minutes? No, probably more. He was physically big, not particularly tall, wearing an expensive coat—MaxMara, I’d say; brown leather gloves—one of which he deliberately removed when he hit me, and then put on again. His shoes were expensive, matched his gloves.” Alex smiled quietly at the sartorial details Siân had absorbed with her professional eye. “He asked me where my boyfriend was, threatened to hit me again when I didn’t answer. He was searching for something I don’t think he found. Did he mean Will?”