“On Jett’s private line? You’ll have to try harder than that, Kevin.”

He sighed. “All right, all right. I picked it up because I was nosy, OK? That suit you better?”

“Much better. I prefer it when people tell me the truth. You overheard our conversation. So?”

Kevin unlocked his fingers and massaged the back of his neck with one hand. “I’ll come clean. I admit I’ve been doing one or two side deals that might not be strictly kosher.”

“You mean you’ve been ripping Jett off with fake merchandise. Let’s stick to plain English, Kevin.”

He flinched. “OK, but that doesn’t mean I killed Moira. I don’t even think she knew anything about it.”

“She didn’t tell you she’d seen you and Fat Freddy together?” I was intrigued by the line he was taking. I had to admit what he was saying wasn’t impossible. After all, at the time of Moira’s death, Maggie still hadn’t found out exactly what line of work Fat Freddy was currently in. For all Moira knew, it could have been nothing to do with Jett.

“No, she didn’t. And if she’d known about it, do you really think she’d have kept her mouth shut? She was quick enough to badmouth me to Jett and to anyone else who’d listen about her bloody royalties money. She couldn’t have resisted telling him anything she found to blacken my name with,” Kevin protested.

The psychology sounded credible, I had to admit. But my belief in his guilt didn’t just depend on one thing. I was torn between letting him stew till the following evening, and fronting him up with what I suspected, to see if I could nail him once and for all. Arrogance won, for a change. “You must have wanted rid pretty badly,” I observed.

Kevin gave me an admiring smile, all expensive dentistry and insincerity. “Nice try, Kate. I’ll admit that if she’d said she was leaving, I’d have carried her bags to the station. But murder? That’s not my style.”

“You had plenty of motive, though.”

“Me?” Kevin threw his arms out in a gesture of supplication. “Kate, if I bumped off every musician who made my life difficult, I’d have been in Strangeways a long time ago.”

“I hear Moira thought that’s where you should be.”

Kevin’s eyelids fluttered as his body tensed. “Look, you keep making these innuendos, but I’d suggest you don’t repeat them outside these four walls.”