Two hours later she stopped at a service area. We took turns to obey our calls of nature, not wanting to leave the van unattended. We ate take-away meals in our seats, enjoying the companionship of being together on the road. I told her that, despite our grim cargo, I was beginning to feel we were a couple at last.

‘Me too,’ she responded. ‘It’s funny, but I didn’t feel this way when we went up to Mum and Dad’s at Christmas. Of course, you hadn’t proposed to me then.’

‘Ellie,’ I said, ‘have you thought about the… our… future at all? I don’t mean in that silly, drippy way we did, about living in the country, but about us?’

‘Of course I have. And I don’t think there’s anything silly about wanting to live in the country. We ought to move – I’ll be glad to get away from that boring dump. The further the better really. Just so long as I’m with you.’

Her face had become animated, to an extent which I couldn’t remember seeing before, apart from when we’d been discussing our next kill. Although the evening on Bredon Hill ran it close. It was reassuring to know that she was a lot like most other women after all. Not that most other women would have gone for me. It was that which made her special.

‘What I meant,’ I resumed, ‘when I said us, was the way we are, the way it’s going to be. We’ve had an exciting time together, to say the least. You don’t think a return to normal life will be a bit of a let-down?’

She chuckled. ‘Never. All we need to do is find legal ways of keeping the adrenaline flowing.’ She leaned across and whispered in my ear, ‘I know quite a few already.’

‘I thought your ex worked in a bank,’ I whispered back.

‘It wasn’t that bad. Not all the time. As I’ve said before, you men are all the same – always generalising!’

‘And you women never stop nagging!’

She kissed me. I thought of the sleeping bags. Then common sense took the helm.

‘Time we were off. May I remind you that we’re in a service area, in broad daylight, on the country’s busiest motorway, with a corpse in the back of the van?’