'You'll be seeing him again?'

'Of course.'

'I wonder if you'd mind if our man cast his eye over you while you're down here? It might save your McManus a crisis of conscience.'

Connon smiled wanly.

'Again I see what you mean. I have no objection.' 'Good. Good. But first, there's one thing that puzzles me. You felt sick in the kitchen. You end up by passing out on your bed. Why not be sick downstairs? The kitchen-sink. Or if your notions of hygiene are so strong, why not use the downstairs toilet? I noticed you had one.' Connon spoke the words of his reply very slowly and distinctly as if learned by rote from a linguaphone record.

'I did not wish to disturb my wife.'

Dalziel crossed his legs cumbersomely and started prying into his nostrils with thumb and forefinger. 'Tell me, Mr Connon, Connie, I always think of you as Connie, do you mind?'

'I always think of you as Bruiser, Superintendent.'

Dalziel was amused and gave a few snorts of laughter. 'If the name fits, wear it, eh? Give a dog, eh? But yours doesn't tell us much. Doesn't fit, does it? Connie. A bit girlish. Which reminds me. You did not wish to disturb your wife. Now me, I'm a blunt Scottish lad by birth, a blunter Northcountryman by domicile. So perhaps the finer points of marital diplomacy have passed me by. (I wish my lad Pascoe could hear me!) But I don't quite follow the workings of your mind here. You come home, you're a bit under the weather, your wife ignores you, you've got to make your own tea. And you don't want to disturb her. There are some men would've disturbed her. Men you've played rugby with who'd have put their boots through the telly screen.' 'Men who have no respect for their wives do not deserve to keep them. Superintendent.' That was a mistake, thought Connon. He's taking it personally. Dalziel's wife, now divorced, had gone off with a milkman fifteen years before. At least, she had gone off. The milkman might have been malicious invention. 'Yes, Mr Connon. You're right. We should respect those who are weaker than us. Or older. Of course we should. Like forgiving our enemies.'