‘Who were those two fellas that just left your flat?’ she shouted through from the kitchen. ‘Looked like coppers to me, or maybe bailiffs. Have you been on the drugs or got behind on your rent?’

‘Yeah, they were coppers. When you sit down, I’ll tell you all about it.’

Grace came back into the lounge, sat down at the table with me and rested her head on the fist of her hand as if to say, ‘I’m all ears.’

I recounted the conversation I’d had with Wilmott and Cowley as well as I could remember. Grace listened in silence and when I had finished she stepped through to the kitchen and returned with the two ready meals, still in their trays, and plonked them down on the table.

‘So what do you think?’ I asked as we both struggled to cope with the intense heat of the microwaved meals.

‘If this pie is an “improved” version then I’m glad I never experienced it in its previous incarnation.’

‘No, not the pie. About the coppers and my mate being found dead. I mean, if the coppers are sniffing about then maybe he’s been murdered.’

‘What you really want me to say is that you should go and find this woman Satsuma. I can tell you’ve got yourself hot for her.’

‘Well, do you? Do you think I should?’

‘I don’t know, Gary, I’m more worried that your mate was found dead. They’ve probably cordoned off the crime scene. Cordoning gives me the shivers.’

‘What, because it reminds you of James Corden?’

‘The only thing that reminds me of James Corden is folded pizza. Be serious now. They cordoned off Peckham railway station when that wrestler went apeshit. They cordoned off the walkway here when the flat next to yours set fire. This is a serious business.’

‘Well, obviously, a bloke is dead.’

‘The thing that bothers me the most, though, is this: how did the coppers know you were the last person to see him?’

‘Well, I presume they saw my message on his phone telling him what time and where to meet up.’

‘But they said they didn’t find any phone on him.’

‘Maybe someone at the pub saw us together?’

‘Why on earth of all the pubs in south London would they have chosen to go and ask questions at the Grove Tavern? It doesn’t make any sense. He wasn’t a regular there or anything. Did they show you any identification?’

‘Yeah, one of them gave me his card. Maybe I should give him a ring and ask how I’ve become involved.’

‘I think you should.’