‘No, I meant what kind of dialogue did you have with Bill Shefford when you took the car in? If, as you said, you’d left his employment in uncomfortable circumstances.’

‘Not that uncomfortable. By mutual agreement. He thought I was crap, I thought his job was crap. Fair exchange, you could say.’

‘So, no recrimination when you took the car in?’

‘No. He didn’t want me as his employee, I didn’t want to be his employee. But me turning up at the garage as a paying customer … that was different.’

Carole could not keep herself out of the conversation. ‘Why did you take the car in?’

‘Because it had a problem with the gearbox,’ Tom replied, with diminishing patience. ‘How technical do you want me to be?’

‘Minimally,’ said Jude.

‘All right. Basically, my mother bought me the Triumph three years ago. Mr Kendrick had had one when the model first came out and she seemed to think that I … It doesn’t matter. She bought me the car. It went OK for a while, then it started to keep slipping out of gear. I thought it was the clutch, took it to Shefford’s. Bill had a look at it, said, no, it was the actual gearbox.’

‘How long ago are we talking?’

‘Three months back, maybe. Anyway, an old car like that, you can’t get a gearbox just off the catalogue. Normal parts dealers wouldn’t carry them. You’d have to source it from a Triumph enthusiast. Bill said he’d look out for one. He was quite excited about the job, dealing with an old car where he could actually access the engine. He was always complaining that car maintenance was all done by computer these days. First tool you need is an iPad.

‘Anyway, a few weeks later he rang me to say he’d tracked down the right gearbox. I could still drive the thing, had to keep my hand on the gearstick most of the time, but I could get it to the garage. Which is what I did.’

‘And when was this?’ asked Carole.

‘It was … let me think … two days before he died.’

‘And did Bill say anything unusual to you when you brought the car in?’ asked Jude.

‘Nothing unusual, no. We both knew what required doing. We’d talked about it before. Gearbox talk, which I don’t think would interest you very much. So, I just parked the Triumph round the back, gave him the key and he told me how long he reckoned the job would take.’

‘Did he tell you how much it would cost?’ asked Carole beadily.

‘We’d discussed that earlier.’ Tom sniggered. ‘Mrs Kendrick would be picking up the tab, anyway.’

‘So that was it?’ Carole pressed. ‘No further conversation?’