‘Of course you do,’ Clement said robustly, privately wishing the inspector a million miles away – preferably somewhere without transport. ‘But he won’t be in quite yet, will he? We’re still too early for him?’ Clement sincerely hoped that this was the case – it was the primary reason, of course, for his early-bird attitude to the day.

He was relieved when she confirmed this by nodding, albeit a little uncertainly.

‘And you can always leave the pathology report on his desk, can’t you? You don’t have to hand it over in person, telling him what it is?’ he prompted, careful to keep his voice mild and matter of fact.

‘Well, no, I suppose not,’ Trudy said, again tentatively. She could see where Dr Ryder was going with this but … did she dare risk it?

‘And if you left the report on his desk, say under a pile of other paperwork …’ Clement mused casually out loud. ‘He’d probably not find it until the end of the day, or maybe not even until tomorrow if luck were on our—’

‘He’d have a hissy fit!’ Trudy predicted glumly, interrupting him before she could become even more tempted. ‘And I’d be hauled over the coals faster than you can say Jack Robinson!’ she added bitterly.

‘But you wouldn’t have done anything wrong, would you?’ Clement wasn’t about to give up yet. ‘He did give you another day on the case, yes? And you have been presenting him with your findings as and when they’ve come in? You could argue that you’d done the same now, right? You called in to work early, found him out, left the report on his desk?’ he cajoled temptingly. ‘He wouldn’t actually know, not for sure, that he wasn’t the one who’d “lost it” in the pile? You did tell me a while ago his desk was always chock-a-block with paperwork and files, right?’ Although he wouldn’t normally stoop to such underhanded tactics, preferring instead to simply demand that he get his own way, right now he didn’t want to rile the inspector too much. He might just pull Trudy off the case.

‘Yes, that’s true enough – he’s not the tidiest of men,’ Trudy admitted. ‘And right now, with the weather, and being short-staffed, he’s been more rushed and careless than ever.’ She knew she was allowing herself to be talked into something she’d almost certainly be reprimanded for later, but right at that moment, she thought it would be worth it.

‘All right. I’ll go in and see if he’s there. But if he is, mind,’ she warned sternly, as the coroner began to grin in relief at having successfully suborned her, ‘I’ll have to hand the folder to him and tell him what’s in it.’