Jane was already on good terms with the Caribbean owner who ran the shop with his wife and nephews. Winston greeted her warmly as she entered.
‘Good evening, Jane.’
She gathered a sliced loaf, a block of cheddar cheese and a tin of baked beans and put them down on the checkout counter.
‘Having a party, are we?’ he said, with a mischievous grin. Jane turned and took down a bottle of vodka from the shelf next to her.
‘I wasn’t, but I will now. Do you have any tonic water?’
‘It’s on the opposite side, with the soft drinks.’
As she picked up a large bottle of Indian tonic water, she noticed the board with advertisements for flats to rent, along with numerous cards for interior decorators and plumbers, including one very professional-looking flyer for Fraser & Son.
She turned to Winston. ‘These electricians... can you recommend them?’
He nodded enthusiastically. ‘I most certainly can. They fixed up my nephew’s garage with strip lights. He also had a lot of problems with his garage doors, but they sorted it really good. And if you want any decorating done, Dwight — the card next to theirs — is very professional.’
Jane jotted the number down. She paid for her groceries and by the time she got home, felt in need of a vodka and tonic, only to discover the ice box in the old fridge would need a hammer and chisel to get any ice out.
Although it was now early evening, she put in a call to Fraser & Son, noting that their address was local, in Bromley. The answerphone clicked on and she listened to the message.
‘You have called Fraser & Son electrical engineers. Our office hours are Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please leave your name and number and we will return your call as soon as possible. Let us know if you need urgent assistance.’
Jane left a message saying that she could wait until Monday. Hopefully by then she would know which station she was going to be working from.
At half past seven, having consumed two large vodka and tonics, Jane got a call back from the electrician to arrange an appointment for nine o’clock on Sunday morning. Mr Fraser said that he would give her an estimate for checking her wiring and suggested that the washing machine might require a plumber, but his son would be able to recommend someone.
Jane thought about getting a second estimate from another electrician but decided to wait until she had met Mr Fraser. In the meantime, she began re-organising the kitchen to make room for the new appliances.
At half past six on Sunday morning the foreman, John Bishop, was the first to arrive at the building site in Stockwell. The site was surrounded by high corrugated-iron fences and Bishop began removing the chains from the corrugated gate. He was expecting three skips to be delivered for clearing the large garden of the five-storey house that was being demolished, after a series of delays caused by the council.
It still amazed him that the huge Victorian house, with its neglected half-acre garden, was still standing in the middle of this redeveloped area. It was going to take considerable time to clear the dense overgrowth and ancient trees, as well as the large rotting greenhouse which was only being held up by the overgrown plants and weeds growing inside. If there had ever been a path from the back of the house, it could no longer be seen. Also on his schedule was the demolition of an old air-raid shelter situated, according to the council plans, almost in the centre of the large overgrown garden.
The demolition team began arriving at seven, and the large digging equipment to clear the garden was due to be arriving on a heavy loading lorry at eight. It was an exceedingly costly project, and they were under pressure to get the land cleared as soon as possible so the new owners could begin building a block of flats on the site.
Bishop had given the men orders that as soon as the skips were full, they were to be taken away immediately and replaced with empty ones, knowing it would take several loads to clear that volume of debris. But if they could complete the garden clearance by the afternoon, then use the same team to demolish the air-raid shelter, they should be on schedule. When he had been overseeing the demolition of the house itself, he had been astonished at the size of the basement which, according to the council, had been off-limits to the tenants, along with the garden. No wonder it was such a jungle, he thought.
As soon as Edward Fraser, the son in the electrical firm Fraser & Son, walked into Jane’s kitchen he had told her that she would require a plumber, as her new washing machine would need to be plumbed in by drilling through the wall to connect the water pipe to the mains. On the other hand, connecting her new fridge freezer was a very simple matter. His main concern, though, was that the kitchen’s electrical circuits had probably been installed when the house had been built in the 1930s.
Jane stood in the kitchen doorway. ‘Are you saying I can’t just plug it in?’
‘Usually you can do that, but I think with your electrics you might have some major problems. I need more time to check all the wiring. I noticed that there was a dimmer switch in your hallway.’
Jane nodded. ‘Yes. It doesn’t work, though. How long would it take to rewire everything in the kitchen?’
Edward Fraser had never come across anyone quite like Jane Tennison. She seemed to be absolutely clueless, and when he showed her some of the damaged wires she became quite agitated.
‘I haven’t been living here very long. Are you saying that I could have been electrocuted?’
He smiled reassuringly. ‘No, I’m just saying that it would be wise for you to have your kitchen rewired. I need to take up the floorboards and check underneath, but you’ve got considerable damp around your sink unit. If you’re going to have a washing machine installed you really need to check the existing plumbing too.’
Jane was beginning to get annoyed. She knew she had got the house at a very good price, even though she had been told by her solicitor that the property needed some renovation. Now she was in a quandary as to how much trust she could put in this electrician, Edward Fraser, or whether should she get a second opinion.
‘Can you give me an estimate for the works?’ she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘What estimate do you want? For rewiring? For checking the damp as well? And as I said, I think you should get a professional plumber in for the washing machine.’
‘Do you think you could give me an estimate for the whole thing, and if you know a good plumber then perhaps he could come to the house to quote. At the moment I have a kitchen that I’m rather afraid to use.’
Edward looked pointedly at his watch and said that he had another job to go to, but he would be able to fax her his estimate and would make inquiries with a friend of his who was a professional plumber.
Jane sighed. ‘I don’t have a fax machine here.’ And she could have added that at the moment she didn’t even know where she would be working from.
They eventually agreed that he would come back later in the afternoon with his friend, and together they would give her the estimate to complete all the necessary work.
Eight skips had now been filled with the debris from the garden in Stockwell, but the work was continuing, with a digger trying to break down the roots that had once belonged to an enormous oak tree. The tree itself had taken considerable time to cut down, and Bishop had now assigned six men to the clearing process as he was concerned they were falling behind schedule — not to mention the numerous complaints about the traffic disruption the work was causing. The police had been called out every time the full skips had been removed because they blocked most of the main road.