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assorted accumulations on every surface. Damien earned a modest salary as a counsellor for a church charity, helping people through various crises. Thea had often wondered how good he was at listening or giving advice. Perhaps, she thought optimistically, he was much better with strangers than he was with his family.
    At last it was time to call Drew. His children would be in bed and he would be sitting with his feet up, wondering how to pass his lonely evening, just as she was herself. One day, she promised herself, they would spend every remaining evening of their lives together.
    He did not answer the phone immediately. When he did, it was breathlessly. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked him.
    ‘The usual,’ he said. ‘Body for removal and not enough of us to do it. For some reason, it won’t wait till the morning.’
    ‘Can’t Maggs and what’s-his-name do it?’ There was a new assistant, required to be on perpetual standby for just such contingencies. Thea had never met him, but he had sounded reliable.
    ‘Peter. He’s called Peter. And he’s in A&E accordingto his wife, because he dropped a sledgehammer on his foot.’
    ‘Den, then.’
    ‘Leave it, love. It’s not your problem. I’m getting Hilary from the village to come and babysit. I’ve got twenty minutes to wait, before she can get here. Let’s talk about something else. What’s it like in sunny Daglingworth?’
    ‘It was sunny for a bit, and then it rained. Luckily I got a lift from an irascible red-haired farmer.’
    ‘You were out in the rain? Why?’
    She gave him a quick account of the day, emphasising the delights of landscape and architecture, and remembering to report the Bythesea name in the church. ‘It’s a hotbed of revolution, surprisingly. I met three eco-warriors, or something of the sort. They object to practically everything – not least the red-haired farmer’s efforts to sell a very small field as a building plot.’
    ‘Don’t get involved,’ he warned her.
    ‘I wasn’t going to.’
    ‘I ought to heed my own advice, I suppose,’ he said, with a preoccupied tone. ‘I think I might have done something I’ll regret.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘There’s a nursing home not far from here. I’ve dealt with them since I started, on and off. But a year ago they were bought by a bigger outfit, with new management and a lot of staff changes. Well, in thepast four weeks I’ve done three funerals for them. And yesterday they called with another one.’
    ‘That’s good, isn’t it? They must like you. Is it them you’re going to this evening?’
    ‘No, no. A different one. But when we went one day last week, one of the inmates collared me – I know most of them, anyway. Quite a few have booked places in the field. The thing is, they’re all terrified of the new people. And the woman who died before this latest one – she was called Mrs Hepton – she was absolutely skin and bone. They said something about it being due to an infection, which made no sense at all. She must have died of starvation. And she was always quite a large lady. So – I made a call to the police about it.’
    ‘Blimey, Drew!’
    ‘Well, I didn’t see I had any choice. I can’t let that sort of thing go on and just turn a blind eye, can I? Even Maggs thinks it’s sinister, and she’s always on at me to leave sleeping dogs alone.’
    ‘Well …’
    ‘The thing is, there’s always been an understanding that undertakers don’t ask awkward questions, particularly where nursing homes are concerned. We need their business, after all. Daphne Plant would throw a fit if any of her team did such a thing.’
    ‘Yes, but you’re not Daphne Plant, are you.’ It wasn’t a question. Thea had heard something of the ambitious female undertaker who had originally introduced Drew to the business. He had left heremploy after a year or so, determined to create his own much more ethical concern. On the whole, he had succeeded handsomely.
    ‘No. And those poor