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the client presents them.’
    â€˜That’s what you always say to do, isn’t it, Grandad?’ Marie said.
    It was. The Old Man opened his hands. ‘I’m a lucky man, my age, that some of my descendants listen to me.’ Although he did not look at Salvatore everyone but Muffin knew that Salvatore was the covert subject of the remark.
    Angelo said, ‘Mrs Shayler thinks there’s something seriously wrong, and she’s willing to spend her money on it. So we assume there’s something wrong.’
    â€˜But what?’ David asked.
    Mama said, ‘It could be his work. Work can preoccupy a man. Heaven knows, I’m an expert.’
    Angelo said, ‘Yes. Maybe there’s something upsetting at work, though Mrs Shayler says in the past he’s never brought a work problem home.’
    â€˜Or he could be preoccupied, but by something else,’ Muffin said. ‘Is it all right for me to talk?’
    â€˜Why of course, my dear,’ Mama said.
    â€˜Preoccupations can be about anything. And they don’t have to make sense to anybody else. It could be something like … like he’s seen a girl in a store as he walks past it. And this girl catches his eye once and she notices him looking, and waves, and now he waves to her every day and he even hangs around outside the window until she waves and gradually he thinks and thinks about her and now he can’t control it any more and he thinks about her absolutely all the time.’
    The detail of the hypothesis caught the adults at the table by surprise. Mama said, ‘Do you possibly speak from personal experience, my dear?’
    Muffin lowered her head for a moment. ‘It’s true. Something like that did happen in a lab I worked in. And it became embarrassing. Worse than embarrassing. But I wasn’t bringing it up because it happened to me. I was just saying it doesn’t need to be really important for something to upset somebody.’
    There was a pause. Salvatore moved thoughts from Muffin’s lab back to Mr Shayler by saying, ‘It’s a possibility—his problem could involve a woman.’
    Angelo said, ‘Distraction, preoccupation, that could be. But maybe what happened last night was that he didn’t make his hot drink at all.’
    â€˜I don’t understand, Dad,’ David said.
    â€˜You don’t understand anything,’ Marie said.
    â€˜You explain if you’re so smart,’ David said.
    â€˜I would but you’re too thick to take it in,’ Marie said.
    â€˜Basta!’ Angelo said.
    Salvatore said, ‘What are you saying, bubba? That the guy did something else when his wife thought he was making his drink?’
    â€˜That’s it,’ Angelo said. ‘And then, because he needed to look like he’d made the drink maybe he filled his mug with water from the tap. That way he wouldn’t have used the work surface, so maybe that’s why he didn’t notice the bottle.’
    â€˜So what’s this husband doing instead of making his hot drink?’ Mama asked.
    â€˜He might have met someone at the back door,’ Salvatore said. ‘Do they have a back door?’
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Angelo said. ‘I’ll find out.’
    â€˜Maybe he was making a telephone call,’ Marie said.
    â€˜Good,’ Angelo said. ‘Your mum asked about the telephone and Mrs Shayler can’t hear the phone being used downstairs if she’s in the bedroom.’
    â€˜So who’s he calling?’ Mama asked.
    â€˜Has he got a girlfriend? Is that it?’ Marie asked.
    â€˜Back to women,’ Salvatore said.
    Angelo said, ‘Possible.’
    â€˜Usually they go out for that,’ the Old Man said.
    â€˜For what, Grandad?’ Marie asked.
    â€˜Careful,’ Mama said.
    â€˜To ring their fancy women. That’s all I meant,’ the Old Man said. ‘Take it from me. A lifetime in the