Malee’s answer showed that she shared Carole’s suspicions exactly. ‘The only thing I can think,’ she said, ‘is that Bill was being blackmailed.’

By the time Carole had finished the call, Jude had opened the bottle, poured two glasses and was sitting at the kitchen table with hers half empty. Seeing her neighbour’s raised eyebrow, she said, ‘Had to get the taste of Frankie’s Chardonnay out of my mouth.’

‘Strange,’ said Carole, taking a modest sip as she sat down. ‘We used to drink bottle after bottle of the stuff.’

‘I find that very encouraging. Evidence that some things – like your taste – can improve as you get older.’ Jude grinned. ‘I could only hear your end of the conversation with Malee. Very frustrating.’

Quickly, Carole brought her up to date.

‘Blackmail?’ Jude echoed. ‘What would someone like Bill Shefford have done to be blackmailed about?’

‘I’ve no idea.’ Carole picked up the diary. ‘But maybe something in here will give us a clue.’

Jude moved round to the other side of the table, so they could both look at the same time.

The first thing they noticed was that the book wasn’t strictly a diary. It didn’t have pages printed with dates, and yet it contained a lot of hand-written dates in Bill Shefford’s large, rather childlike, hand. Presumably, it was one in a long sequence of notebooks which he replaced as soon as they were filled and which contained every detail of his business life. The pages of the one on the High Tor kitchen table were interleaved with bills and scraps of paper and its bulk was held closed by a large rubber band. The paper was decorated with a lot of oily smudges.

The first entry was early February of the previous year, some eleven months before. And as they flicked through, the pattern of how he used the book became clear. There appeared to be little personal stuff, except for the occasional note to self on the level of ‘pick up a loaf of bread’. Otherwise, it was a record of the garage’s business. There were notes about parts that had to be ordered, dates and addresses where cars needed to be picked up for service, customer’s phone numbers and reminders of when the MOTs of his regulars were due.

Though on first glance, the entries, scribbled down in biro or pencil, might appear to be random, Bill had a system going that probably worked better for him than using a conventional printed diary. When a directive had been followed or a job completed, the note was crossed out. By that simple means, Bill Shefford had always kept on top of his business.