He obviously wanted to be satisfied with this, and I refrained from commenting. As I turned along a side street, the dark beyond the gap in the wall appeared to close around the trees. Not many minutes brought me to Julia’s house, and I was first to the front door. When she answered the politely mellifluous chimes I loitered long enough to prompt her to say “Would you like a coffee before you drive home?”

“I wouldn’t mind at all.” As Roy and Bella followed me into the hall, where framed Edwardian photographs of Manchester overshadowed the discreetly silver pattern of the wallpaper, I said “And a talk.”

Julia led the way into the clinically metallic kitchen, where just the chairs and table and cupboards were composed of wood. While she made coffee for the two of us, Roy found chilled juice in the refrigerator. I wondered if the drink would revive his shivers, but perhaps they’d finished with him, unless he was bracing himself. Nobody seemed eager to prompt conversation until Julia set a steaming mug in front of me with a rap like a judge’s gavel. “So what did you find today?” she said.

“Let them say.”

“I wasn’t preventing them, Patrick, but you were the one who wanted to talk.”

“I hope we all do. No reason not to, is there?” When Roy looked wary of speaking and Bella’s eyes stayed guileless, I said “We went to a spring. There used to be a sign for it, but I think it’s been abandoned because it’s a bad place.”

“There’s still a sign,” Roy objected.

“It looked to me as if people wished there weren’t.”

“Bad how?” Julia said. “Poisoned, do you mean?”

“Not in that sense. Bad for anyone to visit.”

“Is that what you both thought?”

“I didn’t, mum. It was just somewhere that gave dad’s aunt an idea.”

“You saw something,” I reminded him. “Heard as well.”

“What did you think was there, Patrick?” Bella said.

“Some kind of trace of someone. Like their voice, and I almost saw them.”

“Was there anything like that, Roy?” his mother said.

“Don’t know.”

“I should think you don’t,” she said and turned on me. “Let your fancies wander if you must, but don’t impose them on these two.”

“I’ve imposed nothing. I’ve just followed what’s already going on.”

“I think you want to be involved too much, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re making it worse.”

The unfairness almost rendered me inarticulate. “How?”

“Turning it into something it wasn’t in the first place.”

“We didn’t mind you coming with us, Patrick,” Bella said. “We appreciated your help.”

This failed to let me feel supported. “Which help?”

“Giving us a lift,” Roy said.

With a hint of disappointment Bella told me “I thought you might see what Thelma saw.”