‘He hoped the search for her or her body,’ said Racic, ‘would be confined to England because he had incontrovertible proof she had stayed with him in Mirna and had travelled back with him to England. No one would think of looking for her here, for it was known to many witnesses that she left here alive. But what did he hope to gain? Surely, if your laws are like ours, and I believe all laws are alike in this, without her body it would be years before he could inherit her money or marry again?’

‘You have to remember this wasn’t a premeditated murder. It must have happened on the spur of the moment. So conceal the body where it may never be found or not found until it’s beyond identification, announce that his wife has gone missing in England, and he gets the sympathy of his powerful father-in-law and certainly Iris’s house to live in and Iris’s car to drive. He keeps his job which he would have lost had he divorced Iris, and very likely gets all or some of her allowance transferred to him. Anna gets her hair back to its natural colour – brown, incidentally – lets it grow out, returns home and they resume their friendship. One day Iris will be presumed dead and they can marry.’

Racic cut himself a slice of bread and nibbled at an olive. ‘I see it all or nearly all. I see that, but for your presence here in Mirna, the conspiracy had every chance of success. What I don’t see is, if this woman made herself look so much like this woman you saw on the walls, if she had the same hair and clothes – but I am a fool! You saw her face.’

‘I didn’t see her face and I didn’t hear her voice. Dora and I saw her very briefly and then only from the back.’

‘It is beyond my comprehension.’

‘The legs,’ said Wexford. ‘The legs were different.’

‘But, my dear Reg, my dear policeman, surely the leg of one brown-skinned slender young woman is much like the leg of such another? Or was there a mole perhaps or a protruding vein?’

‘Not as far as I know. The only time I saw the true Iris Nyman she wore a skirt that covered her legs to mid-calf. In fact, I could see very little of her legs.’

‘Then I am flummoxed.’

‘Ankles,’ said Wexford. ‘There are two types of normal ankle in this world, and the difference between them can only be seen from the back. In one type the calf seems to join the heel with a narrowing but no distinct shaft. In the other, the type of beauty, the Achilles tendon makes a long slender shaft with deep indentations on either side of it beneath the ankle bones. I saw Iris Nyman’s legs only from behind and in her the Achilles tendon was not apparent. It was a flaw in her appearance. When I first noticed Anna Ashby’s legs from behind as she was getting off your boat, I observed the long shaft of the tendon leading up into the muscle of a shapely calf. She had no flaw in her legs, but you might call that perfection her Achilles Heel.’