If I told you what I know, you’d be sure he did kill her.

She looked down quickly, hiding her eyes as if he’d be able to read the thought in them. Jesus. ‘Look,’ she said instead, gesturing back in the direction of Intensive Care. ‘Look where we are. This wasn’t Josh.’

He took another deep breath. ‘Not the one we knew.’

We? ‘What are you saying?’

‘We think – Webster and his team, I mean – that he had a breakdown.’

‘Why?’

He looked at her as if she were an idiot of the first order. ‘Because of the factory.’

‘The factory?’

He frowned. ‘Are you being serious?’

‘What about it?’

He was staring at her now, eyebrows pulled together. ‘You don’t know? She hadn’t told you?’

‘For Christ’s sake, Samir – told me what?’

‘It was about to go under. Bankrupt.’

She pulled her head back. ‘What? Why?’

‘All the usual reasons – cheaper imports, rising costs. They couldn’t compete any more. One of their biggest customers went bust, apparently, about two years ago. That was a big blow.’

‘But …’

‘He’d been under a lot of pressure for a long time. Months – years, actually. They’d borrowed.’ He glanced down the empty corridor. ‘It wasn’t just the money. Mr Legge senior – Gerry – told Webster Josh felt like he was destroying generations of the family’s work, that he was responsible.’

The words tumbled in Robin’s brain, a set of phrases that wouldn’t arrange themselves properly.

‘And the lay-offs were another thing. He’d had to get rid of people who’d been there thirty years, who his dad had taken on when he was a kid. Men in their fifties who’d been on the shop floor since they were sixteen, women who relied on the flexible hours.’

Yes, it made sense, he would have hated that, firing people – been tortured by it, actually. Josh had an old-fashioned sense of his duty towards his workforce; he looked after them far beyond any legal requirements, Rin told her. The factory hadn’t run on huge margins at the best of times but when one of his long-standing van drivers had cancer, he’d paid him his full salary plus Christmas bonuses for three years while he recovered.

‘So that’s one thing,’ she said. ‘What other lines is your man Webster pursuing?’

‘Robin. Apart from anything else, you know I can’t talk about it.’

‘Di told me you’ve found his car.’

‘And that doesn’t change your thinking at all?’

‘Not about him killing her. There’s something going on, he was involved in something – at this stage, I know that – but no.’

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out, looked at the screen and rejected the call. ‘You’re a good friend.’

She snorted. ‘Not very good. My best mate is dead.’

‘That’s not your fault.’