“Okay.” Sophie slotted a k.d. lang tape into the cassette and hummed along to it as Lindsay flicked through the rest of the coroner’s records and the inquest report into Ian’s death. At the service area, she waited in the car while Lindsay gave the details of her request and her credit card number to a London paralegal firm that specialized in company searches and birth, marriage and death checks at St. Catherine’s House.

“They’ll have something for me by close of business tomorrow,” Lindsay said when she returned.

“Great. Well, you’ve just about made out a circumstantial case for Laura killing Ian, but that doesn’t bring us any closer to tying her into Union Jack’s murder. If it was murder,” Sophie said as they headed for the motorway.

Lindsay chuckled. “Even you can’t talk me out of a murder verdict on that one,” she said. “Somebody had it in for Tom Jack, it stands to reason. You don’t shove someone out of a tenth-floor window if you just want to put the frighteners on them.”

“He could have fallen. It could have been an accident during a struggle.”

“So what were they doing in my room in the first place if they weren’t up to something funny?” Lindsay demanded.

“Maybe that was just coincidence. Maybe they just slipped in there to be somewhere more private than the corridor.” Sophie sounded doubtful, even to her own ears. “Anyway,” she continued more strongly, “what’s to connect Laura?”

“The smell of her. Le Must de Cartier isn’t a common perfume. I’ve only ever known two women who wore it, and if I’m sure of one thing in this whole twisted case, it’s that Cordelia didn’t kill Union Jack.”

Sophie shrugged. “So Laura was in the corridor. It proves nothing. So was Andy Spence. He had motive, especially if Tom Jack knew about his sexuality. So was Jed Thomas. He had motive too. He wanted his boyfriend to have a crack at the top job before Jack completely wrecked his union. Your old mate Dick McAndrew didn’t happen to mention where he was at the crucial time, did he? And that’s just the ones you’ve mentioned to me.”

Lindsay pouted. “I still reckon that double-dealing Laura Craig is the best bet.”

Sophie smiled, but took pity. “Well, maybe she did kill him. But the one thing that sticks out a mile in this whole business isn’t so much the motive. It’s this nine-year gap between Ian’s death and Union Jack’s. Maybe if we explored the time span, it would bring us closer to unravelling what connects the deaths. If indeed there is any connection.”