‘All OK?’ she asked, sitting down. ‘Did you call your cousin?’

‘Yes and everything’s fine. Well, not one hundred per cent fine, because an old school friend of his has died and Giles is on his way to Edinburgh for the funeral.’

Her face fell. ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’

‘Yes, I only met the guy once, but he was good fun. Anyway, Giles needs me to walk his dog tomorrow. I’m going to stay over and it’ll be nice to see him – Giles, I mean, not the dog so much. He really stinks.’

We exchanged small smiles and then nursed our drinks as we fell into a subdued silence.

‘Look, I’m sorry if I’ve ruined everything by telling you,’ said Ruby eventually.

I looked across at her, feeling the last drops of my post-Giles peace of mind ebbing away and being replaced by a cool, steadily rising anger. ‘The very last thing you should do in this kind of situation is apologise or blame yourself,’ I said firmly, draining my first glass of wine and placing it heavily on the table before reaching for the second. ‘There’s only one person who’s ruined everything, and that’s Cameron Grange.’

Chapter 3

I was still yawning as I pulled off the Downs and onto the avenue of Victorian semi-detached houses where Giles lived. Aware that the neighbour who had Anthony was planning to leave home at nine, and not wanting to be late, I had set my alarm for seven thirty – an hour which, on a Saturday, definitely fell into the ‘ungodly’ category.

Parking outside Giles’s house, I peered out of the car window, first at his small, gated front garden with its neatly trimmed low hedge and perfectly symmetrical display of shrubs and flowers, and then at the altogether more wild patch of ground which fronted number 21. Untamed fuchsia and rosemary spilled over a low stone wall and an enormous bush of some sort grew to the right of the front door, the longest of its lower branches extending across the path, narrowing it to around a third of its original width.

Climbing out of the car, I crossed the pavement and made my way up the cracked and aged redbrick path which led to the front door. The absence of a knocker left me hunting for a bell and after a few moments I spotted one – a butler’s bell – hiding behind the foliage of the monster bush. I smiled as I pulled it and heard the satisfying tinkling of the pulley-operated bell in the hallway.