It took ages to get the police diver out. Diana Tong had left them to inform Timony what was happening while Timmis and McBrine had rung Joanna to inform her what was going on. The Faulkeners hung around, partly out of excitement and curiosity, but also because they were uncertain whether they could go. And so the four of them had spent an uncomfortable few hours sitting around the kitchen table, the unwelcome guests of a tight-lipped Diana Tong and an increasingly hysterical Timony whose odd, jerky movements and strange throaty noises made them all think she was already having a breakdown. None of them referred to whatever was down the well, though when they met each other’s eyes they knew that they all shared the same nightmare and that the divers would pull out … It was too horrible to contemplate. But none of them actually voiced their fears. They skated around the subject like professionals, weaving and ducking away from the issue. It was as though by not referring to it they could pretend it did not exist, that nothing was down there and that whoever or whatever it was would simply disappear.
