‘I’ve got some nosey questions up front. How much money did you give the boys?’

‘Just usual pocket money. I paid them for work they did on the boats in the school holidays. Bought them both a car- nothing flash. I give Chris an allowance to top up his scholarship, nothing much. Ray worked up here before he took off. I paid him well; overtime, the works.’

‘How big was the row you had? What was it about- money, politics, the future-what?’

He was stowing away the remains of the lunch and carefully brushing off crumbs into his hand. ‘To tell you the truth, I really can’t remember. It wasn’t important, nothing out of the ordinary. We rowed mostly about his attitude. I’d say, “Don’t look so bloody miserable, Ray. What’s your problem?” And that’d set him off.’

‘Would his mother remember the particular row? Was she there?’

He thought about it for longer than seemed necessary. He look off his sunglasses and when he looked at me his eyes seemed troubled.

‘I think that was it’, he said. ‘The row was sparked off by something he said to his mother. He was just down in North-bridge for the night, stayed up here mostly… no, I can’t get it back. But something like that. You’ll have to ask Pat.’

‘Would that upset her?’

‘She’s upset already. She’ll take some more if she must-to get somewhere.’

He’d done enough talking. He scattered the crumbs on the water and went back to work. The anchor came up and he headed back to the marina. We swayed a bit as we crossed a bigger boat’s wake, but the engines had a beautiful easy sound, and the Satisfaction cruised smoothly.

‘Good motors’, I said.

‘Serviced by Ray. Exclusively.’

‘What can you tell me about your wife’s first husband?’