“Que sera, sera, eh?” Lindsay said. Antonis’ attempts to cut short any discussion of Alison’s murder had made her even more determined to pursue it. “But you’d already left by the time of the actual murder, hadn’t you, Ruth?”

Ruth seized Lindsay’s comment like a drowning woman a raft. “That’s right,” she replied. “I had gone back to the gallery. I had some clients to phone, and the girl who runs the gallery for me had gone off early to the dentist. But it never occurred to me that it was anything other than a tiff. Then when I got back about seven, the whole block was in an uproar. There were policemen everywhere. I nearly collapsed when I heard the news.”

“Luckily, I came home soon after Ruth,” Antonis said. “She was in a state of complete terror.”

Lindsay cleared the dishes and brought the ice cream to the table. “That’s funny,” she said. “I thought someone had told me you were there too all afternoon.”

“You must have misunderstood,” he said, fixing her with a suspicious look. “I was out all day. I went through to Edinburgh to have lunch with my literary agent, then I visited some friends at the university.”

“It must have been a terrible blow to you both,” Lindsay continued relentlessly. “She was very close to the two of you.”

“I’m surprised you let Antonis near Alison, Ruth,” Sophie said lightly. “After all, she had a nasty habit of poaching other people’s property.”

Antonis smiled politely, revealing slightly crooked but brilliant teeth. “Ah, but Ruth knows I am devoted to her only.” He was fiddling with his wine glass again, throwing quizzical glances at Lindsay and Sophie as he listened to his wife.

“I think a lot of that has been exaggerated,” Ruth said primly. “A lot of rumor and gossip. If half of it were true, well, there would have been a lot of people rejoicing at her death, wouldn’t there? But everyone was really upset.”

“They’d be bloody silly if they did dance on her grave with a police investigation in full swing,” Sophie muttered.

“I think Ruth has a point,” Lindsay said, pouring oil on the deliberately troubled waters. Sophie was playing her prearranged part of grit in the oyster almost too well. “But on the other hand, if Jackie hadn’t been arrested, I think she and Claire would have been keeping very quiet about her connection with Alison.”

“But didn’t people know about it already?” Ruth asked.

“If you hadn’t lived in the same block as Alison, would you have known?” Ruth shook her head at Lindsay’s question. “And you were her closest friend. So it’s fair to assume there must be other people out there with sufficient motives that no one knows about. Ice cream and fruit sauce, anyone?”