After we’d left it, John had agreed with Mike and I that there was something going on, that there was something we didn’t know, and that he was determined to get to the bottom of it.Several days passed, however, before he did as he’d promised; but he came good. Instead of phoning to tell me, or emailing, he turned up unexpectedly, just after the school run.‘Surprise!’ he said cheerfully, as I gawped to see him standing there. ‘Well, come on, let me in then,’ he said. ‘I have news!’‘Was I expecting you?’ I asked him, trying to flick through a mental filing cabinet, wondering if there was an appointment I’d forgotten about.‘No, of course you weren’t!’ he said. ‘The clue’s in the word “surprise”, Casey. Now let me in, will you, woman? It’s brass monkeys out here!’ I made him a hot drink and allowed him to thaw for a few minutes before pestering him to put me out of my misery. ‘So what is this news?’He pulled a slim folder from his briefcase. ‘Hold your horses,’ he said.
