‘I will see you,’ in a flat voice, and walked away with Vasily, leaving Dyer breathing in the air in which she had left her faint perfume.

Then it was Leandro standing before him. ‘Dad! I didn’t recognise you. Aren’t you freezing in that shirt?’

Dyer was annoyed at being asked. The cold was the least of his worries.

Leandro went on looking at him, still mystified. ‘Hey, I was going to bike home, remember?’ He was finding it strange, this concern of his father’s to ferry him about and turn up unannounced.

‘I thought I’d walk back with you,’ said Dyer feebly.

‘Then can we go to Peppers Burgers?’

‘Not today,’ said Dyer. ‘Tomorrow – after your history test.’ There were lamb chops in the fridge. Unless eaten tonight, they’d have to be chucked away.

This reminder of his forthcoming test, on top of not being able to go to his favourite takeaway in Walton Street, plunged Leandro into a grumpy mood. He hitched his satchel further up his shoulder.

Overhead, the clouds were like foam behind a ship. The two of them walked down Phoenix Lane, through Park Town, and paused at the grassed-in oval, waiting to cross Banbury Road.

A public toilet had dominated this small lawn when Dyer was at the Phoenix. He remembered once waiting at the bus shelter opposite while Rougetel disappeared inside to have a pee. The boy who had re-emerged was unable to batten down his curiosity about the warning printed on a notice above the latrine. At the top of his voice, Rougetel shouted out to Dyer, standing in a line of serious-faced grey-haired women, ‘Hey, Basil, what’s a venner-real disease?’

Watching for a break in the rush-hour traffic, Dyer met his son’s eye, igniting a crafty smile.

‘Vasily’s mother …’ said Leandro.

‘What about her?’

‘I saw you looking at her bosom.’

Chapter Twenty-three

‘WHAT’S THIS?’

It was Leandro next morning who noticed the mark as he opened the passenger door. A neat purposeful scratch on the side, like a tag.

‘Hooligans,’ muttered Dyer. But he wasn’t convinced. You don’t leave an envy line on a seven-year-old left-hand-drive Beetle.

First, his attempted kidnap. Now this tridentine-shaped sinister scratch. In the way that after narrowly avoiding a serious accident you can become more reckless, Dyer decided to act.

Once he had dropped off Leandro at school, Dyer returned to Jericho, but instead of going to the Taylorian, he seized his shoulder bag from the passenger seat and walked back into the house.