“This has got nothing to do with Richard,” I informed him and everyone else within earshot. The tension was beginning to eat into me, and I didn’t know how long I could maintain my cool façade.

“Oh no?” he sneered.

Ignoring him, I went straight to his computer, sat down in front of it and switched it on. Jackson leaned over my shoulder, while the others crowded round behind him. Neil hung back slightly, but his eyes were glued to the screen. I briefly looked through the text files in the directory where he stored his stories, then I moved over to his communications program and keyed into it. “For those of you who aren’t familiar with computers,” I said as I hit the keys, “this is a program that sends material over the telephone lines to another computer. Journalists use it to file copy electronically to newsdesks.”

I chose the “text edit” option and called up the first story he’d sent out about Moira’s killing. I slowly scrolled through the story till only the last line remained off screen. “As you’ll see, Neil had all the details of how Moira was killed. No problem with that if the story was filed after the police gave you all the details of how Moira

“Which it was,” Neil blustered. “And you can’t prove otherwise.”

In silence, I brought the last line up on the screen. It gave the date-stamp on the story. 2:35 a.m.

“It’s a set-up,” Neil shouted wildly. “She’s set this up, can’t you see? She’s the only one who knows enough about computers. She’s framed me.” His face was glossy with sweat and his eyes flicked nervously round the room.

“You can confirm that evidence with the company who transmit the electronic mail, I should imagine, Inspector,” I said coldly.

“Neil Webster,” Jackson intoned, pushing through the press of bodies. “I must warn you …”

The rest of his official caution was drowned by the sound of breaking glass as Neil threw himself through the window in a sparkling shower of splinters.

A soft kiss tickling the back of my neck woke me up. “I hear you nailed the bastard,” Richard murmured into my ear. “Well done.”

I groaned softly and rolled over on to my back. I could feel the warmth of his naked flesh next to mine, and the prospect of snuggling into him was more tempting than I wanted to admit. So I complained, “Couldn’t it wait till morning?”

“I only just heard about it. I went in to the Mirror to drop off some copy, and they told me Neil had been arrested, thanks to some nifty footwork by Mortensen and Brannigan,” he said proudly.

“Mmm,” I said. “That’s about the size of it.”