‘I haven’t heard anything to the contrary. Here’s something else that might interest you. You know the murder I’m on? Nadia Wilkowa? We think he used a taser on her.’

‘That narrows things down, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s not like spiking a drink in a crowded bar and waiting for it to kick in. It’s up close and personal. And he’s acquired her somewhere relatively private. You can’t taser someone in front of an audience. Not unless you’re a cop. Plus, you’ve got to have your getaway lined up, because a taser, that’s not like knocking somebody out. Your victim gets their body back in pretty short order, isn’t that right? So you’ve got to have a plan, it can’t be a spur-of-the-moment thing.’

‘Are you done?’ Paula’s tone was mild, amused.

‘Just thinking aloud, sorry.’

‘No, it’s fascinating, listening to your mind work. If I hear anything more about Bev, I’ll keep you posted. But I thought you weren’t that interested?’

He turned up his collar against the chill wind that hit him as he emerged from the shelter of the buildings around the basin. ‘I’m trying to take my mind for a walk.’

‘OK. Have you got it on a leash?’

‘Very funny. I don’t suppose you know which Freshco she used?’

‘Not for sure, but the logical route from the hospital to home would take her past the big Freshco on Kenton Vale Road. You know the one I mean?’

‘On the right as you’re coming from town? Before the roundabout?’

‘That’s the one. Why?’

‘I need some groceries.’ And, having nothing further to say, he ended the call. As he replaced his phone in his pocket, he wondered whether his tendency only to use the phone for what was absolutely necessary was a hangover from his youth, when landline phone calls were comparatively expensive. His grandmother, who had done most of the hands-on work of raising him, had regarded the phone as a means of parting fools and their money and only permitted its use in what she considered emergencies. He remembered she’d lived in terror of losing her low-user rebate. And then when mobile phones had first been introduced, they’d been prohibitively expensive to call and to make calls from, reinforcing his grandmother’s message of frugality. It couldn’t just be a generational thing, though; he knew plenty of his contemporaries who chatted away on the phone with casual disregard for what it might cost. No, it had to be one of his own personal quirks. A notion that was borne out by the reaction of most of his friends and colleagues to his own reticence during their phone conversations. Carol had always – No. He wasn’t going to allow his memories of Carol to take up space in his mind.