She came up to him in consternation. ‘Are you all right, darling?’

His blood pressure, his heart, too much sun – he could tell what she was thinking. It was rare for him to take a rest in the daytime. ‘Of course I am. I’m fine.’ He sat up. ‘Dora, something most peculiar . . .’

‘You’re detecting again! I knew it.’ She kicked off her shoes and threw open the doors to the balcony. ‘You haven’t even asked me if I’ve had a nice day.’

‘I can see you have. Come in, my dear, don’t be difficult. I always like to think you’re the only woman I know who isn’t difficult.’ She looked at him warily. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘Do something for me. Describe the woman we saw on the walls.’

‘Iris Nyman? What do you mean?’

‘Just do as I ask, there’s a good girl.’

‘You’re mad. You have had a touch of the sun. Well, I suppose if it humours you . . . Medium height, good figure, very tanned, about thirty, geometric haircut. She was wearing a jade green halter top and a blue and green and pink skirt.’

‘Now describe the woman we saw with Nyman on Monday.’

‘There’s no difference except for a black top and a stole.’

Wexford nodded. He got off the bed, walked past her on to the balcony and said:

‘They’re not the same woman.’

‘What on earth are you suggesting?’

‘I wish I knew,’ said Wexford, ‘but I do know the Iris Nyman we saw on the walls is not the Iris Nyman I saw in Mirna on Monday morning and we saw that night and we saw yesterday and I saw this evening.’

‘You’re letting your imagination run away with you. You are, Reg. That hair, for instance, it was striking, and those clothes, and being with Philip Nyman.’

‘Don’t you see you’ve named the very things that would be used to make anyone think they’re the same woman? Neither of us saw her face that first time. Neither of us heard her voice. We only noticed the striking things about her.’

‘What makes you think they’re not the same?’

‘Her legs. The legs are different. You drew my attention to them. One might say you set me off on this.’

Dora leaned over the balcony rail. Her shoulders sagged. ‘Then I wish I hadn’t. Reg, you never discuss cases with me at home. Why do it here?’

‘There’s no one else.’

‘Thanks very much. All this about their not being the same woman, it’s nonsense, you’ve dreamed it up. Why would anyone try and fake a thing like that? Come to that, how could anyone?’

‘Easily. All you need is a female accomplice of similar build and age. On Saturday or Sunday this accomplice had her hair cut and dyed and assumed Iris Nyman’s clothes. I mean to find out why.’

Dora turned her back on the sunset and fixed him with a cold and stony look. ‘No, Reg, no. I’m not being difficult. I’m just behaving like any normal woman would when she goes on holiday and finds her husband can’t leave his job at home for just two weeks. This is the first foreign holiday I’ve had in ten years. If you’d been sent here to watch these people, if it was work, I wouldn’t say a word. But it’s just something you’ve dreamed up because you can’t relax and enjoy the sun and the sea like other people.’