An hour later, I felt different again. It’s amazing how good sex with someone you love puts everything back into proportion. If I didn’t discover who had killed Moira, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I’d have given it my best shot, and that was all anyone could demand from me. Richard wouldn’t think any the less of me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to beat myself up for not being clairvoyant.

I pulled my arm out from under Richard’s shoulders as I felt the tingle of pins and needles. It disturbed his little post-coital reverie and he turned on his side to plant a soft kiss on my nipple. I felt warm and languorous, and kind of sorry for Miss Marple.

“What’s happening about your schneids case, by the way?” Richard asked, with all his usual tact and sensitivity.

“You pick your moments, don’t you?” I complained. “The police and the Trading Standards guys are planning another raid some time in the next few days, I think. They probably won’t tell us till it’s all over, if they even bother then. They’re a bit embarrassed about us doing their work for them.”

“So they should be. You’d think they’d be a bit more grateful that you’re there to hand them the stuff on a plate.”

“It doesn’t work like that. There’s still a fair few of them who think that proper coppers shouldn’t be spending their time on things like trade mark infringements,” I told him ruefully.

“Well, they can’t catch burglars or car thieves. They should be glad somebody’s doing something that gets a conviction or two.”

Sometimes I think Richard’s spent so long in the cloud cuckoo land of rock that he’s lost touch with the real world. But what he’d said about schneids had reminded me of something I wanted to ask him. “Is there a lot of schneid merchandising around on the rock scene just now? You know, sweatshirts and all that?”

“You wouldn’t believe the half of it,” he assured me. He was wrong. After the day I’d had, nothing would stretch my credulity. “It’s an epidemic. Top name acts are losing a fortune from it. Do you know, sometimes the schneid gear even ends up on sale

My ears pricked up. “You mean, it’s an inside job?”

“Depends. It can be done one of two ways. Either they hire a couple of kids locally to run the stall and they’re doing it as a bit of private enterprise, if the schneids are good enough. Or else somebody high up in the organization is slipping them in and not putting them through the books. I don’t really know how it would work, but that’s the word on the street.”