‘We have made contact with Julia Summers. She was staying with a relative and will bring the diary in later today.’

Tyler ran his hands through his hair, looking frustrated. Standing with his hands on his hips, he nodded to the blackboard.

‘Well, we were all interested in tracing the previous owner of the victim’s flat as he was on the agent’s hit list. We know exactly where Sebastian Martinez is – he was cremated two years ago. Coroner’s report confirmed suicide – he hanged himself in a hotel room. Interestingly, that was six months after Charles Foxley had purchased Martinez’s flat for under half the market value. So we need to do some more digging around into that; local police would have attended the incident and a report must have been made for the coroner’s inquest.’

Arnold held up his pencil. ‘I’ll check into that, guv.’

Spencer barged in with a cup of takeaway coffee, looking rather pleased with himself. He had a thick folder in his other hand, which he tossed onto the table.

‘I’ve just come back from Clapham. Miss Pilkington.’

Tyler loosened his tie. ‘I sincerely hope you’ve got something we can use, Spencer. Right now, we have fuck all!’

Spencer grinned. ‘I had to make a few promises to get to the nitty-gritty. Miss Pilkington is a dominatrix. Her entire cellar is equipped like a dungeon: chains, whips, a vaulting horse . . . There’s a padded room and another really sick one with a large baby’s cot. She deals with heavy-duty fetishes. Like I said, I had to make a few promises that I was not there to investigate how much money she was making, but I would say it’s a fair whack. From outside, it looks like any other terraced house, right down to the net curtains. But inside it’s full of rubber suits, masks and mirrors above all the beds . . . ’

‘For fuck’s sake, Spence, get to the point! I think we can all work out what a dominatrix’s place looks like!’ Tyler shouted.

There were a few guffaws around the table, and a couple of the detectives muttered, ‘Never having been in one . . . ’

‘I’m getting to it, I’m getting to it. But you need to get the full picture.’

‘Are you suggesting that this dominatrix killed Foxley?’