Up in the observation room, Laura breathed out an excited “Ooohhh!” Down in the interview room, Jack remained a picture of calm professionalism.

“I was pregnant. I was allowed to enjoy that for a whole six weeks before being told that my Shirl was dead and me old man was banged up for his part in the diamond robbery. Then I was just numb. Greg was a worry—he was already off his head from all the drugs, so I couldn’t tell how he was feeling. He went out to score and, within minutes, the doorbell rang. It was her—Dolly Rawlins. First thing she said was how sorry she was to hear about Shirl—then she asked for a favor ’cos she had no one else to turn to. All in the one breath, that was.”

Without taking his eyes off Audrey, Jack took out his notebook and jotted down all the questions he needed to ask. He barely knew where to begin.

“She had the diamonds with her. She actually brought those fucking diamonds into my house. She said that if I did what she wanted, I’d be taken care of for the rest of my life. She said . . .” Audrey paused as if recalling exactly what Dolly had instructed. “She said I was to take the diamonds to Jimmy Donaldson, who was already lined up to take them off her.”

Jack wrote down Jimmy’s name.

“Go on,” he encouraged her.

“Jimmy was a trusted small-time crim who could fence anything,” said Audrey. “Well—I was in shock! I’m grieving and she’s waving death diamonds in my face and promising me more cash than I can spend. Like I’m gonna be bought that easy when my girl’s not even been delivered to the mortuary yet?”

She sounded outraged, but her next words almost made Jack smile.

“Anyway, I took the diamonds and met Jimmy in his workshop out the back of his house. He bricked them diamonds up in his workshop wall and we went our separate ways.” Audrey became more animated. “The next thing—it was in all the papers—she’d only gone and shot her fucking husband! I reckon she knew she was gonna shoot him, which is why she gave me the diamonds—to hide for her coming out.” Now Audrey was visibly shaking. “Can I have another coffee? And some of them biscuits I had earlier?”

Jack headed out to the corridor, where Laura was waiting. They clutched each other in excitement like a couple of kids who’d just stumbled across a hoard of buried treasure.

“Kettle’s on,” Laura said before Jack could even ask. “Why’s she spilling her guts all of a sudden?”

“She met Susan outside the station,” Jack explained. “I wasn’t close enough to hear the conversation, but she looked pretty shocked.”

“Better get back in there while the mood’s on her,” said Laura.

Restocked with coffee and biscuits, Audrey was ready to start talking again.

“With Dolly in prison, I was never gonna be taken care of for the rest of me life, was I? I was never gonna be paid for helping her. Never gonna get what I was owed.” Audrey’s face fell. “I was working all hours on the market, drinking too much and I had a miscarriage . . . And then one day I heard Jimmy had been arrested. I thought, Jesus Christ, he’s been done for the diamonds and they’ll be coming for me! Turns out he was nicked for writing bad checks, so that was OK. But now I was thinking about the diamonds and how no one but me knew they was even there.”