‘She knew that Hannah drank because Hood had told her so. On the evening that meal was eaten you say Hood called for her at her own request. Why? She has her own car, and I don’t for a moment believe that a woman like her would feel anything much but contempt for Hood.’

‘She told him there was something wrong with the car.’

‘She asked him to come at six, although they were not due at the Kingmans’ till eight. She gave him coffee. A funny thing to drink at that hour, wasn’t it, and before a meal? So what happens when he suggests calling in at a pub on the way? She doesn’t say no or say it isn’t a good idea to drink and drive. She takes so long getting ready that they don’t have time.

‘She didn’t want Hood to drink any alcohol, Mike, and she was determined to prevent it. She, of course, would take no alcohol and she knew Kingman never drank. But she also knew Hannah’s habit of having her first drink of the day at about six.

‘Now look at her motive, far stronger than Kingman’s. She strikes me as a violent, passionate and determined woman. Hannah had taken Kingman away from her. Kingman had rejected her. Why not revenge herself on both of them by killing Hannah and seeing to it that Kingman was convicted of the crime? If she simply killed Hannah, she had no way of ensuring that Kingman would come under suspicion. But if she made it look as if he had previously attempted her life, the case against him would become very strong indeed.

‘Where was she last Thursday afternoon? She could just as easily have gone up those stairs as Kingman could. Hannah would have admitted her to the flat. If she, known to be interested in gardening, had suggested that Hannah take her on to that balcony and show her the pot herbs, Hannah would willingly have done so. And then we have the mystery of the missing brandy bottle with some of its contents surely remaining. If Kingman had killed her, he would have left that there as it would greatly have strengthened the case for suicide. Imagine how he might have used it. “Heavy drinking made my wife ill that night. She knew I had lost respect for her because of her drinking. She killed herself because her mind was unbalanced by drink.”

‘Corinne Last took that bottle away because she didn’t want it known that Hannah drank, and she was banking on Hood’s keeping it dark from us just as he had kept it from so many people in the past. And she didn’t want it known because the fake murder attempt that she staged depended on her victim having alcohol present in her body.’

Burden sighed, poured the last dregs of coffee into Wexford’s cup. ‘But we tried that out,’ he said. ‘Or I tried it out, and it doesn’t work. You knew it wouldn’t work from her book. True, she brought the shaggy caps from her own garden, but she couldn’t have mixed up poisonous fungi with them because Axel Kingman would have realized at once. Or if he hadn’t, they’d all have been ill, alcohol or no alcohol. She was never alone with Hannah before the meal, and while the stew was served she was out of the room.’