Clement, watching benevolently as Trudy’s interview technique came on in leaps and bounds right in front of his eyes, repressed a small smile of satisfaction, and was happy to just watch and listen. He knew he could always jump in if he spotted any opportunity that she seemed to miss.

‘Yes. And it was certainly Mr Parker who preferred to deal with any queries that I might have had arising from them.’ There was something portentous in his emphasis on this sentence that nudged Trudy’s curiosity – as of course, it was meant to.

Obligingly, she went where she was led. ‘And did you have many queries rising from their accounts?’

At this direct assault, however, Philip Prescott again shifted uncomfortably on his chair. He opened his mouth, closed it again, thought for a moment, and then sighed. His fingers, during this hiatus, gently but rapidly tapped the underside of his chin.

‘I wouldn’t say …’ he began, then checked himself and sighed again. ‘There was nothing …’ Realising that his visitors were looking at him with impatience, he forced himself to take the plunge. ‘All right, let me put it this way. In the three years that I have been working with Regal Cars, I have never felt worried that an investigation by the Inland Revenue would turn up anything … actionable. From their point of view.’

Prescott looked at her carefully, then turned to look at the mostly silent man by her side. Seeing that the coroner seemed disinclined to comment, he turned his attention back to the policewoman. Trudy looked back at him just as carefully.

‘I see,’ she said slowly, thinking it through. ‘But, putting aside Her Majesty’s revenue men, would you say that there were occasions …’ This time it was she who had to pause to find just the right word; something innocuous enough not to spook him into reticence, but enough to get him to reveal the meat of the matter. ‘Let’s say, when something in their books … surprised you, or struck you as … odd perhaps?’

‘I would, yes, most definitely,’ Philip Prescott said quickly and with some relief. In fact, he even managed a near-smile. He seemed pleased by her intelligence, and pleasantly surprised by her willingness to approach everything at a suitably oblique angle.

Trudy, who was rapidly getting the hang of how to handle this particular witness, hoped they could now start making some real progress.

‘And was it Mr Parker’s, er, entries in the books that surprised you, more than those of Mr Thorpe?’ she asked, watching his face for signs that she’d either blundered or scored a hit.