Within a week or so a strict regimen of cleanliness wherever there was food or crumbs or spills, coupled with repeated thorough scrubdowns with vinegar and water, rid us of the pests and set a higher standard so that it did not occur again.

‘Just so we understand each other,’ he said after a pause. ‘If you crab this case, you'll be in a jam.’

The bartender served us each a snit with our Bloody Marys this morning.

It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.