Morris patted my hand anxiously. ‘He’s right, Juno. You know he’s right. Let it go.’

I knew they were right, of course, just as I knew it was impossible.

I told Paul as much that evening, when I took him out for a pint. It was the least I could do after the havoc I had wrought in his workshop. He listened, but he agreed with Morris and Ricky. ‘Nick had been in business a long time. You can bet that Vlad wasn’t the first person he tried to cross. Over the years there may well have been other people who had a motive.’

‘For killing him?’

‘For quarrelling with him, perhaps,’ he said unhappily. ‘All I’m saying is, I expect he’s made enemies.’

‘Well, there’s Verbena Clarke …’ I began.

Paul groaned and put his face in his hands. He gave a muffled cry. ‘Juno, please, enough!’ After a moment he looked up and gave me that dark, direct stare of his. ‘Enough. OK?’

‘I’m sorry.’

There was a moment’s silence then he changed the subject. ‘I got on with draining the tank today,’ he told me, leaning back in his chair and picking up his pint, ‘and I’ve put new locks on the doors. I don’t want anyone else poking around in there. When I think what might have happened to you’ − he flashed a grin − ‘famous local heroine.’

‘Oh, don’t you start!’

‘Actually,’ he added, serious again, ‘now that I’ve done that, I won’t be coming down here again.’ He looked down into his glass for a moment, hesitated. ‘This is my last visit.’

I hope I didn’t look as shocked as I felt. My head told me this was a good thing, but my heart still sank. ‘So this is goodbye, then?’

‘I’ve still got some work to finish and some packing up to do, but in a day or two I’ll be heading back.’

‘I see.’

‘We’ll get together again,’ he promised, ‘before I go.’

I summoned up a smile and held up my glass in a toast. ‘Here’s to Henry Wain and Arnold Bishop,’ I said. ‘May they never run out of Darkolene.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE