‘I have his mobile number.’

‘You do? Call him now? I don’t think we should risk staying here tonight.’

‘Em, this place was built by one of the UK’s best-known developers. They must know what they’re doing. There’s a bit of subsidence, but it’s not falling down.’

‘Absolutely, they know what they’re doing – like killing one of their site workers?’

‘That was a tragic accident.’

‘I don’t want to be another tragic accident, OK? Call him now.’

Reluctantly, Jason scrolled through his contacts list, then hit the estate agent’s name.

Jordan answered on the fourth ring. He sounded totally pissed. ‘Jason, my friend! Happy Boxing Day! You know – to you and your lovely wife. I trust Santa Claus did you both proud – even though he might have had difficulties finding you on the new estate, unless he has a very up-to-date satnav!’

A baby was screaming in the background.

‘I hope you had a good Christmas, too,’ Jason said politely.

‘Oh, we did, still going on! You have no idea how – how…’ His voice tailed off.

‘Hello?’ Jason said, wondering if he had lost the connection.

‘Have you seen it? Bloody brilliant, just brilliant.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Die Hard. Bruce Willis. Incredible film!’

‘Paul, we have a problem – a very serious problem.’

‘Bruce Willis has one too – terrorists, but really they are robbers – it’s just brilliant.’

‘Maybe he can sort out our problem, Paul, if he’s that brilliant?’

‘I’ll send him over, pal! Anything else I can do for you?’

‘Actually, yes. I think our house is falling down.’

‘Can it wait until tomorrow?’

Jason covered the mic on his phone and looked, helplessly, at Emily. ‘He’s completely shitfaced.’

‘He has to do something.’

‘He’s going to send Bruce Willis over.’

‘That’s not funny.’

Jason looked up again at the ceiling. ‘Paul, we have a very serious problem, we need urgent help.’

There was no reply.

‘Paul!’ he said, loudly. ‘Paul!’

A faint voice said, ‘I’ve dropped my phone. Anyone see it?’

Angry and frustrated, Jason ended the call. ‘We’re not going to get any sense out of him.’

‘Maybe we should bail out and spend the night in a hotel?’ Emily suggested.

‘We’ve both drunk too much to drive.’

‘We could call a taxi.’

‘It’s Boxing Day night, Em – there won’t be an empty hotel room in the county.’

‘We could go and stay with my parents.’

‘Thank God this didn’t happen yesterday when your parents were here. I can imagine what your dad would have said.’

‘Dad wouldn’t have let us spend another night here until it was all sorted. He’d have insisted we go and stay with them.’

‘And he’d have twisted it all around, so it was somehow my fault for not having the place properly checked out or something. You know how he grabs any chance to get a dig in.’

‘Jason, that is so not fair. We had a very happy day with them.’

He didn’t respond.