Last year Guy had panicked when a woman with whom he was having an affair threatened to go public. She’d ended up dead in a bathtub, and Guy hadn’t exactly helped his claim that it was an accident when he’d tried to cover his tracks and later escape arrest. But all the same, and despite his loathing of any cop who brought the force into disrepute, Grace couldn’t help feeling some sympathy for the man. He had a lovely wife, an equally lovely daughter, he’d been on a rising career path and he’d had everything going for him. Prison was not a good place for a police officer to be. In terms of prisoner loathing, they didn’t rank far above paedophiles.

He read the letter. It was brief. Guy’s handwriting was, as ever, neat.

Roy,

Hope this finds you well. Not much to report here, other than waiting for the appeal hearing against the length of my sentence. Other prisoners haven’t been as nasty to me as I feared – so far, anyway.

I’m writing because I may have something of interest about our mutual friend. No names mentioned because all these letters are read, but I know you were interested in doing something with that church bench. I may be able to help you. Perhaps you could come over – I can promise you it won’t be a wasted journey.

All my best to you and all the team – hey, I miss you all.

Guy

‘From a secret admirer?’ Cleo asked with a grin. ‘Not very classy taste in headed paper.’

‘I don’t think they have Harrods stationery departments in British prisons,’ he said and handed her the letter.

She read it then frowned. ‘All very cryptic – what is he talking about? What church bench?’

‘I’ve no idea, I’m trying to figure it out.’

She gave him a sideways look and grinned. ‘Pew?’

He raised a finger. ‘Genius! Of course!’

‘I thought you were supposed to be the detective.’

‘Yep, well, it’s my weekend off!’

‘So what’s his reference to Pewe, exactly, meaning?’

Grace smiled. ‘It may be he has found out something – got the goods on him. He’s always known the crap I’ve had to take from him. I will definitely pay Guy a visit, next week if I can.’ He smiled again. ‘The weekend just got even better! Something to look forward to afterwards – I’m very nicely intrigued!’

‘Perhaps we could go to church tomorrow – we haven’t been to a normal service since before we got married. Might be good to take Noah and Bruno?’

‘Really? I don’t want to get in the way of a thunderbolt aimed at our little Antichrist upstairs.’

She punched him. ‘You are terrible!’

‘And I can just about cope with one Pewe – don’t want to spend my Sunday surrounded by dozens of them.’

‘Stop it!’