Kevin took a deep breath, leaned his elbows on his knees and rubbed his face. “If you must know,” he said, his words curiously muffled, “I was going out. I haven’t always shacked up in a grace and favor corner of Jett’s house, you know. I’ve got a home of my own, Kate, a beautiful place down the road in Prestbury. Queen Anne style house, five bedrooms, gym, jacuzzi, swimming pool, the works. The wife lives there. When we split up, I moved in at Colcutt temporarily while I sorted things out. Only, my wife, she’s screwing me for every penny she can get her hands on. And she’s fucked off on a skiing holiday with her new boyfriend. I was going round to burgle the house.” He raised his head and stared defiantly at me.

“In a suit and tie?” I blurted out incredulously.

“I thought it would be the least suspicious thing to be wearing if anyone saw me or if I got stopped by the police,” he said lamely. “I know it sounds stupid, but she’d got me so wound up, I just wanted to get back at her.”

“And make a few bob at the same time? That’s some excuse, Kevin. God, you’re pathetic.”

“I might be pathetic in your eyes, but I’m not a bloody killer,” he flared up.

This wasn’t working out at all as I’d imagined. In my scenario, he was going to probe to find out what I knew then mount a

I took a long swig of my drink and settled back to deliver the clincher. “Can you explain something to me, Kevin? If you didn’t kill Moira, how is it that you knew exactly how she’d been murdered before the police told everyone?”

He looked completely nonplussed. Gotcha, I thought. Prematurely, as it turned out. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said with an air of bewilderment. “I knew the same time as everyone else. When the police interviewed me.”

I shook my head. “Not what I’ve been told. According to my witness, you knew how Moira had died by the time the police released you from the blue drawing room, a couple of hours after the murder.”

“That’s not true,” he cried, desperation in his voice. His eyes flicked from side to side, as if checking the escape routes. “Who told you that? They’re lying! They’re all lying. They’re trying to discredit me.” For the first time, his smart-alec composure had cracked wide open. He clearly hadn’t been expecting this at all.

“You’re the one who’s lying, Kevin. You had means, motive and opportunity. You killed Moira, didn’t you?”