“But Baz felt awkward with Penny, knowing why you two had split up. And Penny, who as we both know, was very sensitive to atmosphere, twigged there was something wrong. And she put two and two together, and that’s why she wanted to get into Baz’s office that night. It was Baz, wasn’t it?” Lindsay demanded, slamming her drink on the table. The remaining whisky seemed to rise and fall in a pillar, spilling only a few drops as it settled down.

“You’ve got no grounds for saying that,” Meredith said.

Seeing she was about to capitulate, Lindsay kept up the pressure, her voice rising inexorably. “You dragged me over here to sort this mess out for you. I can understand you not levelling with your lawyer, because it looks bad that the prime suspect’s last lover was not the victim but one of the other suspects. But you should have levelled with me, Meredith!”

Meredith ground out her cigarette and pushed herself away from the table, the chair legs shrieking a protest as she half turned away from Lindsay. “It was a one-off, for both of us. Her lover was visiting her family in Ireland. We were both lonely and feeling sorry for ourselves. She was just as keen as I was that nobody should find out we’d slept together. She had a lot to lose, after all—her lover as well as her professional relationship with Penny. And that brought her a lot of kudos there at Monarch. She cares too much about what people think of her professionally to fuck around with that.”

“I think Penny guessed,” Lindsay said flatly. It was neither her place nor her inclination to condemn. Fidelity wasn’t hard between her and Sophie. But she had no feelings of self-righteous ness on that count. She knew how easy it was to slip out of that habit when a relationship was on a rocky road where reassurance had become a rarity.

“She didn’t say anything directly to Baz,” Meredith said.

“Penny wouldn’t have. Not without evidence. And that’s what she was looking for in Baz’s desk and her computer. She bribed one of the staff at Monarch to smuggle her in after everyone had gone home for the day. She was looking for some piece of evidence to confirm her suspicions. I think she found it.”

Meredith swung back to face Lindsay, reaching again for the cigarettes. “Baz wouldn’t have left anything incriminating in her desk.”

“No? What about e-mail?”

Meredith’s gray eyes widened in shock. “Ah, shit,” she said softly. “Yes, there would be an e-mail trail a yard wide.”

“Still think Penny didn’t know?”

Meredith sighed a stream of smoke. “I guess it’s possible she found out. Depends if Baz has her files well protected or not.”