“That’s because she was. I’ve still got some brains left.” Her latest silence could have signified resentment or reproof, and I was about to end it when she said “They were loitering near her after she fell. They were the first there, and they stayed in the crowd.”

“Why didn’t you mention them earlier?”

“I thought they must have been in there for drugs. I didn’t care to be singled out as an informer. Call me a coward who wouldn’t take responsibility if you like.”

“No,” I said to some of that, “why didn’t you mention them to me?”

“Because I didn’t realise they were so significant.”

“And now you think they are because…”

“Someone like them has been skulking around here. I’ve no idea what they think they are, but I saw them with—”

At first I thought she’d been cut off, and then I heard a protracted shaky breath. “Yes, with?” I urged.

“They’re out there now, watching me. Come and see for yourself.”

This sounded like a challenge, unless she was accusing me of disbelief. “Can’t you just say?” I protested.

“I want someone else to see them.”

Presumably this was a refusal. “I’ll be with you as soon as I can,” I said.

The blank white tube that led beneath the river seemed to hollow out my mind, and by the time I drove out of the far end I was losing any sense of purpose. All the way through Liverpool traffic lights greeted me by turning red, and roadworks contributed to hindering me as well. Cones like headgear for my ignorance narrowed the motorway, slowing most of the traffic down, not least my car. Once I left the motorway the flat land felt like the absence of a destination. I ought to see what Hattie Dennison had seen, if it related to my aunt, but I’d begun to wonder whether she’d imagined it. Perhaps her vagueness on the phone should have alerted me to her state of mind.

The tower blocks of Stonefield rose grudgingly to meet me as the road wandered closer. Lower containers for tenants surrounded them to make up the town. As the row of old cottages came in sight I saw the church, which looked mass-produced, hiding most of its length behind Block Five. I was nearly at the cottages before I noticed a small crowd outside the tower block.

Would Hattie Dennison want her neighbours to see me? Suppose they thought she’d informed on some of them? There was no point in parking further away when they would see me at the cottage. Surely she would have phoned if she wanted to put me off. I was drawing up outside her cottage when my feet faltered on the pedals, and the car jerked to a halt. The crowd had gathered around a woman who lay face up on the concrete.