Cooper could hear the tea hissing in the urn and the wet rattle of Frank clearing his throat in the kitchen. May was humming behind the counter, the same snatch of ‘Nessun Dorma’ over and over again. He looked at Todd Weenink, but Weenink stared out of the window, as if his attention had been taken by a passing lorry. Cooper knew that his colleagues weren’t angels. Every one of them was human, prone to emotions and acts of folly. He had known officers driven to the most appalling stupidities by anger or fear, or by some desperation in their lives that undermined their self-control. But this was too cold, too calculated.

‘If they’re guilty, Ben,’ said Weenink, ‘what does it matter?’

Cooper knew why it mattered. It mattered because the likes of Wayne Sugden were likely to focus their grievances not on the police, but on the people who testified against them. In this case, Sugden’s grievance had focused on the key-holder for that cottage at Ashford, who had listed the damage that Wayne said he had never done. If he needed a motive after the death of his nephew, Sugden’s resentment would have had an obvious target.

‘And Jenny Weston?’ he said. ‘How did she come into it?’

‘The fact is, I fancied Jenny something rotten right from the start, as soon as I clapped eyes on her at that cottage. I thought I’d be all right there. But she seemed to need a bit of encouragement, you know. She was a bit uptight about the burglary, about what her parents would say when they got back. She kept on about it ruining their holiday, so I reckoned what she needed was reassurance. A quick arrest.’ Weenink winked. ‘A hero on a white horse. It works a treat.’

‘How long did that last?’

‘Last? It never lasts. We had a few nights, that was all. We used the cottage, so her neighbours at Totley didn’t see me. It was a bit of fun. She wasn’t interested in anything else.’

‘In this day and age, don’t you know any better?’ said Cooper.

Weenink scowled. ‘You’re not going to lecture me about AIDS and all that stuff, are you? You only live once, mate, and you’ve to take it when you can get it. If I die young, so what? Nobody will exactly be breaking their hearts, and at least I’ll have had a good time.’

‘So you didn’t see Jenny Weston after that?’

‘No, I didn’t. Like I said, it was just a quick in and out for her. Scratching an itch. She was quite honest about it. Besides . . . well, she wasn’t entirely walking the line, you know.’

‘What?’

‘She wasn’t a hundred per cent kosher. She had a leg either side of the fence. She swung both ways, Ben.’

‘Todd, are you telling me Jenny Weston was bisexual?’