‘Used cars,’ Juliet corrected her. ‘A rather tawdry trade, I’ve always thought. Selling silly little cars to middle-aged men who can’t properly afford them, and certainly don’t need them.’

‘And can’t drive them properly,’ Jasper added with a laugh.

Millie flushed at this evidence of her children’s contempt, but said nothing. Her lips, though, had tightened into a thin, stubborn line.

Trudy got out her notebook and jotted down the name of the garage and the address that Jasper dutifully recited for her. She also made a note to contact her counterparts in Birmingham and ask them to see if they could find a next of kin for their victim. But she wouldn’t hold her breath. The whole country was covered in snow, and she doubted that her request would be a priority.

‘Thank you, sir. Perhaps your sister could also help in making up that guest list?’ she added.

‘Sure, but we’re not going to thrash that out right now,’ Jasper told her bluntly. ‘You’ll have to call back in a couple of hours for it. Right now, I think Mother needs to rest and get over the shock a bit. I’ll run you a hot bath, shall I?’ he added to his mother, who nodded gratefully.

‘Perhaps her daughter could stay in the bathroom with her?’ Clement said quickly. He didn’t want Millie to remain unchaperoned in a bath full of water.

‘Yes, she can make herself useful for a change,’ Jasper said sardonically, looking at his sister mockingly, who promptly poked her tongue out at him.

‘Twins,’ Millie said to Clement with an unhappy smile, embarrassed by their behaviour. ‘They’ve always been like this. They don’t mean anything by it,’ she added feebly.

‘I’ll just see you out, shall I?’ said Jasper, getting to his feet and looking thoroughly unabashed. It was not an offer so much as an order, and one Trudy was in no position to quibble with. Well, not yet anyway, she mused grimly.

Once on the doorstep, however, she had a few last questions. ‘Did anything unusual happen at the party, sir? Was Mr Parker, shall we say, a little worse for drink?’

‘That would hardly be unusual at a party, Constable dear, would it?’ Jasper drawled.

‘So he was drunk then?’ Trudy snapped.

‘Not that I saw. But then, I wasn’t paying that much attention to him,’ Jasper snapped right back.

And then he shut the door firmly in their faces.

Chapter 9

‘Well that was interesting,’ Clement said mildly, the reverberation of the slammed door still echoing in their ears. He was looking at her with a half-smile on his lips. The handsome, cocky young pup had really riled her, he could see.

‘Hmph!’ Trudy grunted. ‘Did you get the impression that our hostess had, shall we say, a distinct fondness for our victim?’