‘Also, he always says the modern police have no idea how to do the job that he did. Proper policing, he calls it. I don’t know what he means, exactly, but he’s very disrespectful.’

‘Ye-es.’

Mel laughed at his expression. ‘In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to solve your case for you by now. Or, at least, told you how to do it.’

‘Well, I don’t think Mr Palfreyman has done that,’ said Cooper.

To be fair, he had no idea what the former PC had got up to after he and Fry left his house. If, by some miracle, Palfreyman actually did solve the case of the two dead women at Pity Wood Farm, he wouldn’t be complaining. But he bet Diane Fry would be.

‘Mel, I still don’t really understand why you thought it was so important to come into Edendale and tell us this.’

Mel Palfreyman pushed back her hair and stroked the tattoo on her neck. Black-painted fingernails followed the shape of a Celtic knot etched in blue ink.

‘My granddad thinks you’re trying to set him up as a suspect for these murders at Pity Wood. Are you?’

Cooper couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘And why would we do that?’

Mel began to laugh again. ‘You know, Granddad gave me a lecture once, all about how you can tell if a person is lying. He thought it would be useful to me when I started going out with boys. He said one sign to look for is when someone answers a question with another question. It’s an attempt to divert your attention, instead of giving a direct answer. I think that was the gist of what he said.’

‘That was pretty good advice,’ admitted Cooper, trying hard to hide the expression in his eyes. He supposed that would show, too. He hoped he wouldn’t blush, or start stammering.

‘Yes, I thought so.’

‘We don’t set people up, anyway. It’s just not something we would get away with. Not these days.’

She studied him closely, and seemed to accept what she saw. ‘I don’t know. It’s what Granddad thinks, though. To be honest, I reckon it’s because it was the way things were done in his day. The way he saw things being done.’

‘I can promise you it’s not like that any more,’ said Cooper, tempted to cross his fingers behind his back as he said it.

‘So you haven’t been digging out people who’ll say things against him? You haven’t been gathering circumstantial evidence that would make a case against him, just because he’s a convenient suspect?’

‘No, of course not. Though there are certain circumstances that …’

‘That what?’

‘Well, that might need a bit of explaining.’

‘So Granddad will be questioned again?’

‘Almost certainly, I should think.’

‘I see.’