Abbott faltered, realising that he had given away more than he intended. ‘Of course not,’ he snapped. ‘He’d never have been able to manage without me.’

‘Then what did you mean when you said he’d come to his senses?’

‘I meant he might actually apologise. He drank too much, like he always did, and he said some stupid things. If anything, I should have been the one who resigned.’

‘How much money were you owed?’

‘That’s none of your fucking business. It was peanuts. Do you know how rich he was? And thanks to me, thanks to the advice I gave him, he got even richer. As for the job, I didn’t need it. I’ve got savings. And there’s nothing to spend money on in this shithole anyway.’

And just a few moments ago he’d been extolling the island of Alderney for its sense of fair play.

‘Did you go into the Snuggery?’ Hawthorne asked.

‘No, I did not go into the Snuggery.’

‘You didn’t take cocaine with Charles le Mesurier?’

Abbott let out a brief bark of laughter. ‘No, I don’t do drugs. No, I did not put a knife in him. When are you going to stop making up lies about me?’

‘Tell me about Helen le Mesurier.’

‘What do you want to know about her?’

‘How often did you see her?’

‘I saw her when I saw him.’

‘Why did you arrange to meet her yesterday?’

‘I didn’t.’ He gave Hawthorne the full gun-barrel eyes. ‘That’s another lie.’

‘She sent you a text. She’d seen you go into the Snuggery with her husband just before he was killed and she wanted to know what was going on. You told her to come here at half past two, but she would have cut across the railway line and you were waiting for her there. You killed Charles le Mesurier because he’d fired you and you killed her because she saw you.’

‘I never texted Helen. I didn’t kill Charles. She didn’t see anything.’

‘I’ve also spoken to Colin Matheson.’ It was like some kind of vicious chess game between the two men. Each move was another attack. Hawthorne waited a moment for a response and when it didn’t come he went on. ‘He’s told us that you were blackmailing him.’

‘So now it’s murder and blackmail?’

‘You had compromising photographs of him and Mrs le Mesurier. You coerced him into supporting the Normandy-Alderney-Britain line.’

‘And why would I do that?’

‘Because you have shares in Électricité du Nord. You wanted to raise their value.’