‘And there are the most objectionable of people to deal with. Their concerns are unbelievable. It’s all jealousy and selfishness and greed. Husbands and wives, children and parents, colleagues and business partners – all desperate to know about what someone else is up to. The times they have asked me to employ enquiry agents to look into their sordid little affairs. And not just the clients, either. My partners are just as bad.’

‘You don’t get on with your partners?’

‘We work together satisfactorily. But they’re all the same – complacent, self-centred and obsessed. They’re so single-minded that their lives are empty shells. They’ll discover it one day, but it will be too late.’

Fry nodded. The description Maggie had just given of her partners echoed her own file. Maggie Crew’s history was one of professional achievements, and little else. Maggie talked of empty lives. But it only took a glance round the room to see whose life was the emptiest of all.

Fry watched the way Maggie drank her coffee without turning fully to the desk, then spun her chair back towards the window.

‘Ready now?’

Maggie nodded and closed her eyes.

‘Tell me what happened that day, Maggie.’

Maggie didn’t need to ask what day she meant. ‘I’ve been over it so many times before. I can’t remember.’

‘What would you normally have done that day? It was a Sunday, wasn’t it?’

‘All right, then. On a Sunday, I would have got up later than usual, had a leisurely breakfast. Toast and marmalade and two cups of coffee, probably. I need coffee to get myself ready for the day. I would have switched on the TV to get the morning news. Maybe I looked out of the window and I saw what a nice day it was.’

Fry watched Maggie gradually becoming less tense. She was starting to relax as she focused on the world outside herself. The best way was to ask few questions. Encourage the interviewee to close their eyes and picture the scene, down to even the tiniest details; let them recall smells, noises, their feelings at the time. Officers were no longer trained to take control of an interview. Too many courts had accepted the contention of defendants and lawyers that the police had suggested the answers themselves.

Eventually, this process might be conducted by machine entirely. Two tape decks to record the answers, and a third to repeat the necessary phrases: ‘Now, just close your eyes . . .’

‘Is that what made you decide to go to Ringham Moor? That it was a nice day?’

‘I really don’t know,’ said Maggie.

‘It’s OK.’

‘Ringham Moor is not too far away. I’ve walked there lots of times. I used to go there before I became a partner. Afterwards, there never seemed to be time.’

‘All right. Move forward a bit. To when you reached Ringham –’