‘Then who was?’

‘Charles le Mesurier.’

I ran that through my head. ‘Hawthorne, are you saying—’

‘The whole thing was a set-up.’ Hawthorne took out a cigarette and lit it. With Abbott absent and quite possibly on the run, there was no need to ask for permission.

‘I’ll have one of those, if you don’t mind,’ Torode said.

‘Sorry, mate. Last one.’ Hawthorne slid the pack back into his pocket.

‘What do you mean, it was a set-up?’ I asked.

‘When we talked to Derek Abbott in the kitchen, he was shit-scared half the time. Of course he denied everything. That’s what he’s done all his life. But he was also on the defensive. He insisted he hadn’t been fired. He didn’t want us to know how much money he’d been paid. He said it was peanuts when actually it was twenty thousand quid. He also lied about texting Helen le Mesurier. Of course it was him. She was five minutes from his house when she was killed.

‘The only time he relaxed was when I accused him of having shares in Électricité du Nord. That was when he got cocky. He told me to check out the list of shareholders and then he threw me out of the house. Well, I checked the shareholders and he was actually telling the truth. He’s got nothing.

‘That part of the story was wrong – but where had it come from? It was what Abbott had told Colin Matheson and what Matheson had then told us. So why did he lie? Don’t forget, he never took any money from Matheson. All he wanted was for him to influence his stupid committee and get the power line up and running. And who actually had the most to gain from that?’

‘Charles le Mesurier.’ Suddenly, it was crystal clear.

‘That’s right. Charles was getting cash payments as an adviser, but we also know that he’d sold a piece of land to the company for five times its true value. That was what was at stake. If he was going to hit pay dirt, le Mesurier needed someone inside the States to get the electricity line off the ground and so he used his own wife as bait. She seduced Colin in front of the camera. And his dirty little friend, Derek Abbott, was the one who put the squeeze on him.’

‘And that was why he was paid £20,000!’ I exclaimed.

‘Exactly. Le Mesurier earned millions, but Abbott got a commission.’

‘Wait a minute!’ Torode cut in. He pointed at the camera in disgust. ‘Are you saying she knew she was being filmed?’