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come up with that was truthful as well as sounding like I approved.
    â€œIt’s really wild, isn’t it? It’s only three minutes away from the M66. It’s just above Ramsbottom. I can be in the office in twenty
minutes outside rush hour, but it’s completely isolated from the hassle of city life.”
    If that had been me, I’d have ended the sentence six words sooner. If you’re more than ten minutes away from a Marks & Spencer Food Hall (fifteen including legal parking), as far as I’m concerned, you’re outside the civilized world. “Right,” I said. “That’s just what you wanted, isn’t it?”
    â€œYeah, it’s the business. As soon as we saw it advertised, we called a meeting of the other people we’ll be building with, and we all went off to see it. We’ve agreed a price with the builder, but he wants a quick completion because someone else is interested. Or so he says, but if you ask me, he’s just on the make. Anyway, we’ve put down a deposit of five thousand pounds on each plot, and it’s looking good. So it’s time to sell this place and get our hands on the readies we’ll need to build the new house.”
    â€œBut where are you going to live while you’re building?” I asked.
    â€œWell, Kate, it’s funny you should mention that. We were wondering …” I nearly panicked. Then I saw the smile twitching at the corner of her mouth. “We’re going to buy a caravan now, at the end of the season when it’s cheap, live in it over the winter and sell it in the spring. The house should be just about habitable by then,” Alexis told me cheerfully. I couldn’t control the shiver that ran through me.
    â€œWell, any time you need a bath, you’re more than welcome,” I said.
    â€œThanks. I might just take you up on that, you being so handy for the office,” she said.
    I drained my mug and got to my feet. “I’ve got to run.”
    â€œDon’t tell me, you’re off on some Deep Throat surveillance,” Alexis teased.
    â€œWrong again. I can see why you just write about crime rather than detecting it. No, Richard and I are going tenpin bowling.” I said it quickly, but it didn’t get past her.
    â€œTenpin bowling?” Alexis spluttered. “Tenpin bowling? Shit, Brannigan, it’ll be snogging in the back row of the pictures next.”
    I left her giggling to herself. All through history, the pioneers have been mocked by lesser minds. All you can do is rise above it.

    There are probably worse ways to spend a wet Wednesday in Warrington than wandering round modern housing developments talking to the local inhabitants. If so, I haven’t discovered them. I got to the first address soon after nine, which wasn’t bad considering it had taken me twice as long as usual to get ready that morning because of the painful stiffness in my right shoulder. I’d forgotten you shouldn’t go tenpin bowling unless you’ve got the upper body fitness levels of an Olympic shot putter.
    The first house was at the head of a cul-de-sac that spiralled round like a nautilus shell. I tried the doorbell of the neat semi, but got no response. I peered through the picture window into the lounge, which was furnished in spartan style, with no signs of current occupation. The clincher was the fact that there was no TV or video in sight. It looked as if my conservatory buyers had moved and were renting out their house. Most people who let their homes furnished tuck their expensive but highly portable electrical goods away into storage in case the letting agency don’t do their homework properly and let the house to people of less than sterling honesty. Strangely, a couple of the houses I’d visited the previous evening had had a similar air of absence.
    Round the back, there was more evidence of the missing conservatory than in the others I’d