‘I’ve told you. He talked about death. He talked about being in a position where something he was going to do would please some people but not please others. Which at the time I thought meant leaving the Shefford’s business to Malee and going off with her to Thailand, but now I’ve talked to her I’m not so sure about that. He was just generally in a low mood.’

‘Depressed.’

‘I’m sure that’s how you’d describe it – depressed.’ It wasn’t a word Carole liked to use. In her personal dictionary, it had connotations of self-indulgence, of not standing up to life. Deep exploration of such thoughts, in her view, was a kind of navel-gazing. She never rationalized that her vehement dislike of the word might be a way of dealing with her own potential depression.

‘Mm.’ Jude was thoughtful for a moment. Then, ‘Right.’ She whipped out her mobile. ‘I’ll ring Tom now.’

Again, the phone was answered by the gatekeeper of Troubadours, Natalie Kendrick. Again, Jude wished she’d got Tom’s mobile number. And yet again, she wondered about the precise dynamics of the family relationship there. Was Tom Kendrick’s lethargy and lack of ambition a direct result of his mother’s omnicompetence? Did he just not bother because he knew that, ultimately, she’d do everything for him?

‘What do you want?’ There was an edge of aggression in his voice. He clearly thought that, by meeting them in Brighton, he had done as much as he wanted to do for the two nosy women.

By pointing and mouthing, Jude indicated to Carole that she was going to put him on to speakerphone.

‘When we last met,’ she said, ‘we talked about your time working at Shefford’s …’

‘Incidentally,’ he said, ‘I can tell you’ve got me on speakerphone. So, I gather I’m broadcasting to the other gossiping granny as well, am I?’

‘Any objections?’ asked an affronted Carole.

‘No, no, invite in the whole of Fethering, so far as I’m concerned. They’ve already said so much about me, a little more’s not going to do any harm. And, by the way, you know I agreed to talk to you in Brighton because I thought it might put an end to the gossip …?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, it hasn’t worked. Whenever I go out, it still feels like I’ve got a big arrow stuck over my head, saying “Prime Suspect”.’

‘Sorry.’

‘I’ll survive. So come on, what is it you want now?’

‘It just struck me,’ Jude replied, ‘that you haven’t really told us about how you took your car in for repair at Shefford’s.’

‘Well,’ Tom said, as if he was talking to a couple of five year olds, ‘my car needed repairing, so I took it to Shefford’s.’