‘Why am I here?’ He was laughing and shaking his head. ‘I hardly need to tell you that, now, sweetheart, do I? To see you, of course.’

‘Chris, just go home.’ Esther slowly edged nearer her little gate.

‘But this was our night, Esther, we agreed…’ He was moving alongside her. The gusty drizzle had stopped as suddenly as it had arrived, and he had taken off his cap and was squeezing it in his hands. ‘You are so beautiful, Esther, you do know that, don’t you? Just as you know the effect you have on me. Right from the start.’ He reached out to stroke her head, gripping her arm when Esther tried to duck away.

‘Let go of me. Now, Chris. Let go. Or I will scream.’

‘Look, all I want is to talk, okay?’ There was no relenting in the grip on her elbow. ‘Two minutes of your time, then, Esther. Is that so much to ask?’

Her front door was nearer now, just behind him, the gate hanging open in its usual derelict way. But still, in any tussle – with her phone, or her door – she would lose.

‘One minute. If you let go of my arm.’

He released her elbow at once, shaking his head disconsolately. ‘We had something, Esther, something good…’

‘No, Chris, we did not. And we never…’ His mouth flew at her face, finding her cheek. Esther jerked free, not quickly enough to avoid a brief repulsive stroke of his tongue in her ear. She charged towards her door. Time slowed. She was aware of Chris, lumbering rather than sprinting, behind her, but also, quite suddenly, of the flashing electric blue dots in the new installations fixed at different angles above Dimitri and Sue’s front door.

‘Go away, or I shall call the police,’ she shouted, spinning round and finding her house keys in one easy hand-dive into her bag. ‘Go away, and never contact or come near me again.’ She spoke loudly, disgustedly and in a tone of command she did not recognise. ‘We are on camera, Chris, so I shall report you anyway. For trespass and harassment. With proof.’ She gestured in the direction of the protruding cameras, while taking care to keep her eyes fixed on him.

He had started shuffling backwards, scrunching his hat up more tightly. In the beam of the street light, she could see his eyes blinking behind the lenses of his glasses, wide with alarm. ‘But I haven’t…’

‘Yes, you have, Chris. Finding out where I lived, bombarding me with messages and gifts after I had asked you not to. I bet you even followed me to the bloody garden centre. It stops, do you understand? It wouldn’t exactly help things with Kelly, would it,’ Esther hissed, with a venom she had no idea she possessed, as he continued to shrivel before her eyes, ‘for the police to know her father is a stalker?’