‘I am sitting on a hardback chair at St Mary’s Hospital. The guv instructed me to stay here until our ex-Mrs. Foxley has recovered, and I’m waiting for a uniform to take over. I had a quiet word with a rather tasty receptionist who told me on the QT that our ex-Mrs. Foxley was quite a frequent patient. She’s had her stomach pumped and is still being monitored. I tell you something else, Jane, my wife is not going to believe what’s been going on tonight. I called her but she’s not answering the bloody phone.’

‘Listen, Spence, I’m going to make myself a hot chocolate and go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘All right for some,’ Spence muttered. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Jane replaced the receiver. She felt absolutely exhausted. She had a quick shower and didn’t even bother with the hot chocolate. She was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

*

The following morning Jane bought a takeaway coffee and a toasted cheese sandwich on her way into the station. She was at her desk by 6:45 a.m. but was not the first in as DC Gary Dors and DC Tony Johnson were already marking up an evidence board. Two clerical staff were checking through statements from neighbors which had been taken the previous night, and three more uniformed officers were traipsing in and out with more files on the house-to-house inquiries. Spencer arrived shortly after Jane. By his disheveled and unshaven appearance, she doubted he had made it home.

He approached Jane’s desk. ‘Looks like Justine Harris has made a remarkable recovery and may be released sometime today – I believe she’s being put in the care of a right prat called George Henson. He was demanding to see her and got quite abusive when they said he couldn’t. He was going on about how Justine’s daughter, Clara, should be taken out of school by her grandmother, before the news about her father’s murder hit the headlines.’

‘Do you know what happened? Do you know if Henson was able to sort it out?’

Spencer nodded. ‘I suspect so. The receptionist was all over him like a rash,’ he added sourly. ‘She called in the duty doctor who’d pumped out Justine’s stomach.’ He cocked his head to one side. ‘You do know who Henson is, don’t you?’

‘No, but from the way he spoke to me, if he isn’t famous, he thinks he should be.’

‘Jane, he’s one of the top directors in England. Did you ever see Life on the Speedway?’

Jane shook her head. ‘No.’

‘How about Doomsday Killers?’

‘Nope.’

‘Riot Run?’

‘Definitely not.’

‘Depraved Slave?’

‘Seriously, Spence, do I seem like the type of person who would pay money to go and see films like that?’

‘But Jane, they’re very sexy, especially Depraved Slave.’