Tyler was now waiting impatiently for Jane and Spencer to join him in the boardroom. He had made copious notes but avoided showing them the photos of the postmortem as Spencer was still eating his egg sandwich. Neither of them had had time to type up their reports of their morning at Foxley’s agency, so Jane gave Tyler a condensed version. Tyler listened intently and asked a few questions.

‘We still need to do more investigation to discover a possible motive,’ Jane concluded. ‘And until we know the beneficiaries of Foxley’s will, we don’t know who gains anything from his death. But there was no one who had a good word to say about his ex-wife, Justine Harris, who seems to be a violent alcoholic.’

‘Do you think this ex-wife could be capable of murder?’ Tyler asked.

Spencer shrugged. ‘Apparently she gave one of the other agents a right uppercut that knocked his tooth out, but to be honest he’s a bit of an arsehole so I don’t really blame her.’

‘Sir, you know that Justine Harris attempted suicide, which could be due to her emotional distress at seeing the appalling state the body was in,’ Jane said.

Tyler leaned back in his chair. ‘She was definitely hysterical, but at the same time she seemed angry that he was dead. By rights I shouldn’t have allowed her inside the crime scene, but frankly she was unstoppable – plus she might have been able to give us a positive identification. But I swear she was going to kick him. We had to drag her out in the end and—’

There was a knock at the door and DC Dors put his head around. ‘Excuse me, guv, there’s a Mrs. Florence Harris on the phone who wishes to talk to, as she puts it, “the man in charge”.’

Tyler frowned.

‘I know you said you didn’t want to be interrupted,’ Dors said, ‘but I think it’s Justine Harris’s mother.’

‘For Christ’s sake, just put her through,’ Tyler snapped.

Tyler was tight-lipped, waiting for his phone to ring, but he didn’t snatch it up; instead, he carefully picked up the receiver. ‘Mrs. Harris, this is DCI Tyler. How can I help you?’

Although neither Jane nor Spencer could hear clearly what Mrs. Harris was saying, there was a strident, aristocratic voice on the other end of the phone, and Tyler had to hold it away from his ear while he made a few scrawled notes.

‘Thank you for the update, Mrs. Harris. Much appreciated.’

Tyler replaced the receiver and turned to them both. ‘Well, Justine Harris was released early this morning from St Mary’s and she’s been taken to her mother’s home in Ascot. Apparently Mrs. Harris is taking her granddaughter out of boarding school and is trying to get Justine to see her previous psychiatrist at the Priory.’

‘Is Justine Harris now with her mother?’ Jane asked.