Trudy thanked her with real gratitude. Clement tipped his hat to her and beat a thankful retreat.

Chapter 19

The Raven’s Rest, alas, lay off a small side street somewhere between the Banbury and Woodstock roads, which had last seen a snowplough many days ago.

Forced to abandon the car on the main road, they were relieved to find a path of sorts, which had been forged by the street’s residents, hacking a narrow corridor through the three-foot-high snowbanks. They had to walk in single file, and by the time they reached the bed and breakfast – a nice-looking Victorian house in pale stone – they were both shivering.

The house had probably once belonged to a respectable merchant and his extended family over a hundred years ago, but now boasted ‘vacancies’, a ‘television lounge’ and a telephone in the lobby.

The owner didn’t look happy to see a police uniform cross her doorstep, and listened, stony-faced, as Trudy described the guest she wished to see. The landlady, about fifty, round and looking like a disapproving pouter pigeon, reluctantly agreed that she did indeed at present have a guest staying in her establishment, such as the one described. With a haughty sniff, she gave them the guest’s name – Mrs Phyllis Raynor – and her room number.

After being very careful (under the owner’s gimlet eye) to knock their boots free of any lingering snow on the sisal mat in the small reception hall, they walked up the carpeted steps to the top floor.

The woman who answered the summons looked at them blankly for a moment, then slowly turned her head a little to one side.

‘Yes?’ she said uncompromisingly.

‘Mrs Raynor? Phyllis Raynor?’ Trudy asked. She was aware her voice sounded portentous and wished it didn’t. But she’d reacted instinctively. Perhaps it was the way the woman’s face became instantly shuttered when she saw her uniform. Or perhaps she was gaining enough experience to know when a witness was going to be uncooperative. But she just knew that there was going to be no cosy or revealing chat with this witness, and it brought out the officialdom in her.

‘Yes,’ Phyllis said again. Her tone wasn’t aggressive but it wasn’t neutral either, and made it very clear that she wasn’t interested in whatever it was they were selling.

‘I would like to ask you a few questions. It’s in connection with a police inquiry,’ Trudy said firmly.

The woman, who stood uncompromisingly foursquare in the doorway, blocking any view of the room beyond, cocked her head slightly to the other side. She didn’t look intimidated, angry or worried.

‘Yes? What it is you want to know?’

‘Did you attend a New Year’s Eve party a few nights ago?’ Trudy began.

‘I did not.’

Trudy blinked. That had been flat, clear and unequivocal. She took a breath and girded her loins for a tussle.