Richie squinted up at me, against the light. “You think that’s overkill?” I asked.

He shrugged. “If it’s true, what the sister was saying—about the break-in—it’s pretty creepy, all right.”

I said, “You figure that’s why I’m going high security? Because the sister’s story is creepy?”

He stepped back, hands going up, and I realized my voice had risen. “I just meant—”

“As far as I’m concerned, chum, there’s no such thing as creepy. Creepy is for kids on Halloween. I’m making sure all my bases are covered. How stupid do you think we’d look if someone waltzed into that hospital and finished the job? You want to explain that one to the media? Or, come to that, do you want to explain yourself to the Super if tomorrow’s front page is a close-up of Jenny Spain’s injuries?”

“No.”

“No. Neither do I. And if it takes a little overkill to avoid that, then so be it. Now let’s get you inside before the big bad wind freezes your itty-bitty bollix off, shall we?”

Richie kept his mouth shut till we were heading back up the Spains’ drive. Then he said, carefully, “The family.”

“What about them?”

“You don’t want them seeing her?”

“No, I don’t. Did you spot the one big piece of actual info Fiona gave us, in with all your creepy stuff?”

He said, unwillingly, “She had the keys.”

“Yeah,” I said. “She had the keys.”

“She’s in bits. Maybe I’m a sucker, but that looked genuine to me.”

“Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. All I know is, she had the keys.”

“‘They’re great, they love each other, they love the kids …’ She talked like they were still alive.”

“So? If she can fake the rest, she can fake that. And her relationship with her sister wasn’t as simple as she’s trying to make out. We’ll be spending a lot more time with Fiona Rafferty.”

“Right,” Richie said, but when I pushed the door open he hung back, fidgeting on the doormat and rubbing the back of his head. I asked, making sure the edge was gone out of my voice, “What’s up?”

“The other thing she said.”

“What’s that?”

“Bouncy castles aren’t cheap. My sister wanted to rent one for my niece’s Communion. Couple of hundred squid.”

“Your point?”

“Their financial situation. In February Patrick gets laid off, right? In April, they’re still flush enough that they’re getting Emma a bouncy castle for her birthday party. But by somewhere around July, they’re too skint to change the locks, even though Jenny thinks someone’s been in the gaff.”

“So? Patrick’s redundancy money was running out.”

“Yeah, probably. That’s what I mean. And running out faster than it should’ve done. A good few of my mates are after losing their jobs. All of them who’d been at the same place a few years, they got enough to keep them going for a good while, if they were careful.”

“What are you thinking? Gambling? Drugs? Blackmail?” In this country’s vice league, booze has all of those beat hands down, but booze doesn’t wipe out your bank account in a few months flat.