The silver Volvo was now our responsibility. TPR parked it haphazardly at the other end of our Edinburgh street, even though there were plenty of parking spaces right outside our flat. Was he ashamed of our vehicle, I wondered?

I took charge of the car and, with the help of a friendly policeman, sorted out a problem with the fuel. Then I decided to move it out of the paid parking zone. The car would be well out of TPR’s sight half a mile away.