‘Hi, darling!’

‘All OK with David?’ she asked. ‘Will he get the framing done?’

‘In the nick of time – I’ve got to remember to collect them before midday tomorrow, before he shuts up for Christmas. How did the shopping go?’

She pointed at the packed rear of the van. ‘We’ve got everything we need for the anniversary do. They had an amazing offer on prawns – we have to make prawn cocktail starters for everyone, so we’re nicely in profit on that dish!’

‘Brilliant!’

‘They’re still in their shells. It’s a pain to remove them, but they’re so much yummier than the ready-peeled.’

‘Darling, it’s your eye for detail that’s made you such a success.’

She smiled. ‘I just like to give peeps food that I would eat – so long as they’re willing to pay for it.’

‘I’ll give you a hand in with everything.’

For the next fifteen minutes they worked together, removing the bags from the van and stacking the shelves of the upright freezers that lined most of the wall space in the garage.

‘How much food do these people eat?’ he asked, in wonder.

‘It’s not just the anniversary event; we’ve stocked up on basics, too.’

There were fourteen tall freezers in the room, all of them full by the time they had finished.

‘Let’s hope we don’t have a power cut,’ he said.

She blanched. ‘They don’t happen very often, I hope. And when they do, we don’t open any of the doors. Everything will stay frozen for several hours.’

‘Good.’

They went into the house. The kitchen clock showed it was 2.55 p.m. Emily glanced around at the spotless work surfaces and empty sink. ‘Did you have any lunch?’

‘Yes. I thought I’d pop down to the pub – do the local thing.’

‘Did you indeed? Down the old boozer, eh?’ she ribbed.

‘I had a Diet Coke. And a soggy sandwich.’

‘See anyone? Our lovely neighbours?’

‘Just the landlord and that creepy old farmer we saw on Sunday.’

‘Lucky you.’

‘I actually went to the village to see if I could chivvy up the vicar.’

‘Vicar?’

‘The guy who came yesterday, Roland Fortinbrass.’

‘Yesterday? Roland Fortinbrass? Fortinbrass was a character in Hamlet, wasn’t he?’

‘The Hamlet character only had one “s” in his name. The vicar has two, he told me.’

‘When did you see him? You didn’t mention this.’

‘Emily, hello!’ He gave her a pointed look. ‘The vicar who came when Louise was here, and we discussed getting a Minister of Deliverance, or whatever it’s called, to come to the house.’

Her face was blank. ‘Came when Louise was here?’

He felt his skin squirming.

‘Yes!’ he said. ‘Yesterday morning.’

‘Nobody came, Jason,’ she said. ‘There was no one else here.’

‘Babes, we all chatted with him. He asked if any of us could sing, because he needed recruits for his church choir.’

She was looking at him as if he was mental. ‘Yesterday morning?’

‘Yes! Just when Louise was doing her trance thing. The doorbell rang, and I went and brought him into the kitchen.’