‘He was the mirror image of Melody, you know, with big green eyes and the same glorious red curly hair. He had such a bright personality, everyone loved him.’ She sighed. ‘He could sing, he could dance. Charles was always in his shadow. No one could ever compete with this beautiful boy – he was so good at school. He’d inherited my brother’s brain, you see.’

Jane waited while Eunice took a careful bite of her apple turnover, then put her spoon down.

‘He was nearly twelve and for no reason at all he began to have periods where he found it difficult to breathe. Melody was absolutely distraught. These episodes would come out of the blue for no apparent reason. Eventually he was diagnosed with severe asthma. It made poor Tommy quite fragile. He had been such a sporty and physical little boy, playing football, cricket, as well as his dancing. One thing that seemed to really trigger it was laughing. He had one very bad attack and Melody rushed him to A&E. From then on the little soul always had an inhaler in his pocket and would say, “Don’t make me laugh, please don’t make me laugh.” Because of his condition he was always the focus of everyone’s attention – even more than before. I think Charlie tried in every way possible to get some attention for himself, but no matter what he did, he always came second.’ She dabbed at her eyes again. ‘And then it happened.’

Jane waited.

‘I know he never meant it to happen,’ she said sadly. ‘They were in their bedroom and Charlie had been told to look out for his brother and always to make sure he had his inhaler. You have to remember that Tommy was a few years older. Anyway, Melody heard the boys fooling around and Charlie was tickling his brother to make him laugh. She was heading up the stairs, shouting for them to stop as she heard Tommy start laughing, and the next moment, he was having a terrible asthma attack . . . This time they couldn’t save him.’

Jane leaned forward in her chair.

‘Melody swore Charlie did it on purpose, because he was jealous. She was even more sure of this after she found the inhaler hidden under the bed. She beat Charlie savagely, screaming at him that he had killed his brother. It was horrible. The neighbors found Charlie, black and blue, hiding in their garden. Melody never recovered and began to gorge herself. She hardly left the house. It was tragic to see her look so awful.’

Jane called for the bill, then showed Eunice the photographs that Justine had given to her at the station.

Eunice peered at them with a sad expression. ‘The little boy in uniform is Thomas and the one holding a tennis racquet is Charlie.’