The Ghost Factory. Jenny McCartney

but he wasn’t, he was just shy of her because she tried to bully him with too many questions.’

      She smiled suddenly. ‘He used to call her the Iron Lung, because she was always hunting after me, shouting my name.’

      ‘How long did you go out together?’

      ‘Two years. Your mother liked him. The pair of us used to give Mary the slip sometimes and go out to the dances together.’

      I couldn’t leave it now. I had to get to the bottom of it before the wine wore off and Phyllis clammed up about the only really important thing that had ever happened to her, and went straight back to talking ceaselessly about hairstyles and pork chops.

      ‘So why did you stop going out?’

      ‘He was killed in an accident,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘I wasn’t with him because I wasn’t feeling well that night. He went out to a dance with his brother, and his brother was driving him home along a country road late that night when a van hit their car. The van’s driver was drunk.’

      ‘Did the brother survive?’

      ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He only had a broken arm. He got married the year after. But after my boyfriend I never felt like going with anyone else.’

      ‘I’m so sorry, Phyllis,’ I said. Then we both started looking, quickly, at the list of puddings. After some deliberation over the pavlova and its possible disappointments in texture, Phyllis played it safe and plumped for the chocolate mousse.