Detective Sergeant Bert Hook was surprised to see the woman looking so anxious when he answered his front door. For a moment, he didn't even recognize her. That wasn't good for a policeman. You needed a good memory for people you'd seen before. Bert usually prided himself on his memory for faces.

He was off duty when he was at home; perhaps that's why he'd switched off. He stirred his mind into reluctant action. He'd been working until nine in CID last night and then they'd had a couple of swift pints to unwind. He didn't seem to be able to shrug pints off as easily as he once had, in his cricketing days. They'd had five or six pints sometimes, after Herefordshire had enjoyed a good day. It had never been a problem the next morning, not in those days. It shouldn't be a problem now: he was forty-three, not seventy-three, for God's sake. But as Chief Superintendent Lambert was wont to remind him, God seemed to have very little connection with the doings of policemen nowadays.

He knew who this woman was now, but that only made him feel more guilty. A neighbour – next door but one, he was almost sure. He said hastily, 'I'll go and find Eleanor for you.'

'No. No, it's you I want to see.' The woman moved her weight from right foot to left foot and then back again, like an embarrassed adolescent. 'It's you I need to see, Sergeant Hook.'

She was upset. It had taken her a big effort to come here. Hook, who was a sensitive man beneath his gruff exterior, divined that and wanted to help her. He forced a smile, cast his Saturday-morning lethargy aside and said with all the grace he could muster, 'You'd better come in, Mrs Ramsbottom.'

He'd remembered her name now, as well as her face: that was better. That was a little more professional. But it was easier when the name was slightly ridiculous, like this one. He studiously avoided any suggestion of a smile and led her into the deserted front room. They called it the dining room, but it was the boys' homework room, really. Some of their books were still open on the table from last night's efforts. He swept them quickly into a pile and put them on the sideboard, then drew back one of the dining chairs at the table and invited his visitor to sit.

She sat on the very edge of the hard chair, as if recognizing that she was here on sufferance. Bert didn't think she'd ever been in his house before, unless she had enjoyed some private tryst with Eleanor in his absence. But he and Eleanor didn't have secrets: she'd have told him about it. He listened to the boys shouting at each other upstairs and wished that they would shut up. Mrs Ramsbottom had screwed up her resources to come here. She deserved at least a respectful hearing – not that you could expect boys to think like that, even if they'd realized that she was here.

She had a good bust, he thought suddenly, as she leaned forward a little and stared at the table in front of her. You somehow didn't expect women to have good figures, when they were housewives and had names like Ramsbottom. That was both sexist and stupid; he must really be relaxing at the weekend.

He said with a rather desperate seriousness, 'What can I do to help you, Mrs Ramsbottom?'

'It's probably nothing, really. It's probably just me being stupid.'

'If I had a fiver for every time I've heard someone say that, I'd be a rich man, Mrs Ramsbottom.'

She gave her first little smile, appreciating his encouragement. 'It's Lisa. You should call me Lisa. We're neighbours, after all. That's why I'm here, isn't it? I hope this isn't an imposition.'

'It's not an imposition, Lisa. I'm happy to give you whatever help I can. But I should warn you that people often think people like me can do far more than we actually can. I usually end up telling them to go into their local police station and follow the standard procedures.'

Her hand flew suddenly to her lips. 'I couldn't do that, Sergeant Hook. They'd laugh at me, I'm sure.' She looked at him anxiously. 'It's all right to call you Sergeant, isn't it?'

He smiled at her, trying to relax the tautness which was evident even though she was now seated. 'Strictly speaking, it's Detective Sergeant Hook. But that's when I'm at the station and on duty. Here, it's Bert. We're neighbours, as you said.'

A wider smile now. Her gratitude was out of proportion to what he had offered, but he sensed that she was relieved that she hadn't been rebuffed. He said, 'It's much better that you tell me about what's worrying you. I see a lot of life at Oldford police station. It's not all good, but at least it helps to put things in proportion. Perhaps my experience can help you now.'

She looked round, seeing first his wedding photograph, with a younger Hook looking shy and uneasy beside a radiant Eleanor, then the pictures of the boys when they were small, then the one of a very serious thirteen-year-old Jack in his new cricket flannels, playing a studious forward defensive shot. She said apologetically, 'It seems silly here, where everything's so normal. But it was scary, when it happened.'

'That's often the way of things. The context alters them. Sometimes, in the full light of day, on a quiet Saturday morning like this, things seem less threatening than they do at night, or when you're left on your own with them.'

Just when Bert was into his therapy act, there was a huge crash from upstairs and a yell of protest from his younger son. His father put his head into the hall and called, 'Quiet up there! We've got a visitor down here, Luke, in case you didn't know.'

A sudden cascade of footsteps down the stairs, a precipitate arrival of two teenage boys in the hall. Jack appeared in the open doorway. 'Sorry, Mrs Ramsbottom. We didn't realize you were here. It was Luke, you see. He dropped his tennis racket.'

Bert wondered why his elder son was trying so hard to be polite to their visitor. Then he remembered belatedly that the woman sitting at his dining table had a rather pretty daughter who was in the same year as Jack at school – very likely in the same class, for all he knew. He said sternly, 'What we want is for both of you boys to be quiet. Go into the garden, if you like. Help Mum unload the food she's bought, when she gets back from the shops. Give us a little quiet and privacy in here, that's all.'

He shut the door firmly on the boisterous energy in his hall and smiled at his anxious visitor. 'Kids! Sometimes it's easier to do these things at the station. But they won't interrupt us now. They know the score.'

'They're good boys, Bert.' She forced herself to use the unfamiliar name. 'Well, Jack is, anyway. I hardly know Luke. But they're a credit to you and Eleanor.'

'Thanks. But you didn't come here to tell me that, did you?'

'No.' Lisa Ramsbottom twined her fingers on the table in front of her, inspecting the varnish on her nails. 'I came because I'm scared. Someone keeps threatening to kill me.'

The new Chief Constable looked very smart in his beautifully tailored uniform. Important to give the public the best impression, he always thought. And you never knew when you might be on show without notice. It wasn't just the press who wanted quotes; in these days of local radio and regional TV, you were likely to be cornered at any time. Usually you could only say the standard things: the police were aware of all the circumstances and the investigation was proceeding. But he thought they carried a little more conviction if you were smart.

Today...