‘And,’ he pontificated on, ‘I feel that is particularly true when you’re starting out on a new relationship. Complete honesty is essential.’

Again, I didn’t argue.

‘I have learned, from bitter experience, that any other approach can be very painful and destructive.’

‘Bitter experience?’ I echoed.

‘Yes. In a previous relationship, I had the misfortune – well, I say “misfortune” but the outcome was fortunate – to discover that my partner was cheating on me.’

‘Oh?’

‘With someone else.’

That was another detail I could have pieced together for myself, but I didn’t say anything.

‘And it became clear to me, after some weeks of Ally and myself being “an item”, that there was an area of her life that she was keeping secret from me. I refer to her visits to Hove.’

‘Ah.’

‘At least, at first I didn’t know it was Hove she was visiting.’

‘No?’

‘She claimed that these unexplained absences were for meetings about this charity she’s involved in. Bloody donkeys. She’s obsessed with bloody donkeys. I think that’s an area of her life that may need some changes. I’m not sure that I want a girlfriend of mine to be involved in a donkey sanctuary when—’

‘Could we get back to her visits to Hove?’

‘Very well. I must confess I was suspicious. About these charity meetings. It seemed to me strange to have charity meetings during the evening. And I’m afraid, after my previous bitter experience, the idea that Ally was cheating on me developed and, kind of, festered in my mind. I gave her the opportunity to offer an alternative explanation of what she was doing, but she stuck to her story which, increasingly, I knew to be false. So, one evening, when she said she was going off to one of her charity meetings, I followed her in my car.’

‘This is before the night when Ingrid Richards died?’

‘No, no, it was before that. So, I followed her and, once I was in Hove, I saw which building Ally went into and I’m afraid I put the worst possible construction on what she might be doing there.’

‘You thought she was seeing another man?’

‘I did. As I said, bitter experience. Once bitten, et cetera. I didn’t stay. I drove straight back to Hastings. But when Ally got back that evening, I challenged her, and she persisted with the lie about the charity meeting. So, I decided to take more positive action.’

‘What were you going to do?’

‘Next time she went to Hove, I would once again follow her, but this time I would go into the building after her and find out who it was she was seeing.’

‘So, you met Ingrid?’

‘No, I didn’t. I got delayed by some roadworks on the way from Hastings. Round Polegate it was. Ally’s car had just gone through when the light went red. By the time I got through, I had lost sight of her. Then I took a wrong turning and got to Hove … I don’t know, probably some quarter of an hour after Ally did. And, in fact, when I got there, she was just leaving the building in Brunswick Square.’