‘Yes,’ Perez said. ‘Tea would be great.’ He expected Maurice to take him through to the flat, but the man turned round and switched on the kettle there. Perhaps he saw the big lighthouse kitchen as neutral territory. Perez thought Maurice might have questions about the investigation; instead this was the sort of polite conversation you’d have with an acquaintance, about the weather forecast and the prospect of a quiet spell at last. The tears and depression that had formed his first response to the murder had given way to a mindless focus on small details. Another way, Perez supposed, of coming to terms with Angela’s death.

‘I was wondering if you could help me fill in some gaps in Angela’s background.’ Perez interrupted Maurice’s description of the high-pressure system that was due to settle over German Bight.

There was a moment of shocked silence. Maurice dropped teabags into mugs.

‘I don’t know much about her life before she took up with me,’ he said at last. ‘She didn’t get on with her family.’

‘She must have told you something about them.’

‘Her father was a scientist. An academic. He had strange ideas about education and taught her at home instead of letting her go to the local school.’

‘Do you know why her parents separated?’

‘Angela never discussed it,’ Maurice said. ‘She resented her mother leaving, said she grew up feeling abandoned.’

‘How did she get on with her father?’ Perez asked. He cupped his hands round the mug of tea.

Maurice shrugged. ‘They were very close when she was young, but later Angela found him controlling. I had the impression he was a bit of a bully or at least that he tried to live his life through her. When she left home to go to university they lost contact.’

‘That was her decision? Not to see him again? It seems extreme, especially if they got on together when she was young.’

‘I didn’t mind,’ Maurice said. ‘It was Angela I cared about. I hadn’t married her family.’

‘What about her mother? Did Angela keep in touch with her?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Maurice opened a tin of Jane’s ginger biscuits and handed one to Perez. ‘She never talked about her and I didn’t ask.’