“Wait a minute,” she breathed. “Now I remember. It was Laura who confirmed my suspicion that there was another man. From what Ian said, it sounded to me like Laura was seeing someone else and he’d found out and given her the jaggy bunnet. Then I spoke to Laura on the beach and gave her the hard word about being unfaithful. She looked really shocked, and I took it that she was surprised because Ian had talked to anyone about it. But thinking about it now, it could just as well have been because I’d hit on the wrong thing altogether.”

“Not for the first time,” Sophie said affectionately.

Pretending to ignore her, Lindsay continued. “Which means that the break-up might have been nothing to do with their relationship, as such.”

“Meaning what?” Sophie asked.

“I wish I knew,” Lindsay said. “Maybe some deep dark secret from her past. Maybe he got hold of the same story as Conference Chronicle.”

“But you said that story was complete garbage,” Sophie reminded her.

“So maybe I was wrong. We’ve got to get back and see what we can dig up about this.” Lindsay pushed her chair back with a squeal. “Do you want me to drive?”

Sophie laughed. “No way. Helen’s car wasn’t designed with frustrated boy racers in mind. You’d have the gearbox burned out half-way there.”

As she followed Sophie back to the car, Lindsay found a moment to wonder what had become of her old MGB roadster, the car that had been her partner for longer than any woman to date. Eyeing up the boxy Japanese wedge that passed for a sports car in the nineties, Lindsay felt a brief stab of regret. With a sigh, she settled into the passenger seat and returned to the attack. “I still find it hard to believe that Laura is a Special Branch plant,” Lindsay confessed. “And I can’t imagine why Tom Jack would keep quiet about it for all those years if he thought she was.”

“Personally, I find it hard to believe that she’d kill to preserve her cover even if she was a right-wing infiltrator. I mean, what was the worst that could happen to her? She’d be blown, okay, but I bet the powers that be would have found her some comfortable little niche in the Civil Service. Now, if we had some convenient money motive . . . Do we know who benefited financially by Ian’s death?”

Lindsay shook her head. “I don’t remember, if I ever knew. But I could find out easily enough. Pull up at the next motorway services and I’ll set the wheels in motion.”