‘Yes. I’ve worked with Bill Shefford for more than twenty years. One thing he could never be accused of is carelessness, particularly when it came to Health and Safety. All right, he was old-fashioned in some ways. He preferred working in the inspection pit to using the hydraulic lift, which caused a few arguments with Billy. Billy wanted to fill in the pit and buy a second hydraulic lift, one with a higher spec that they could use to do MOTs. God knows how many times I’ve heard him say, “There’s money in Ministry of Transport testing, Dad.” Billy always had new ideas for updating the facilities, but Bill always found ways of avoiding further investment. He wasn’t mean, mind you, just cautious.’

‘Probably more cautious after he’d married Malee,’ Barney contributed.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Jude.

‘She would have discouraged him from spending, so that there was more for her to inherit.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘Oh, I do, Jude, I do. You see, the thing is with “Mail Order Brides” …’ He launched into another subject on which he apparently had encyclopedic knowledge. ‘When UK men marry them, they don’t realize that they’re not just taking on the upkeep of the bride herself, it’s her whole family. Just you watch – as soon as probate’s sorted, Malee’ll be back in wherever-she-came-from, introducing hordes of relations to a much better lifestyle than they have any right to expect.’

Jude pursed her lips. She wasn’t enjoying this xenophobic diatribe. She looked across for support from Carole, but her neighbour’s expression was ambivalent. Carole could be distressingly blinkered about certain subjects. Jude decided not to protest further, just see if any useful information emerged from the conversation.

‘Yes, I’ve heard that,’ said Frankie. ‘Moment I saw Malee for the first time, the expression came into my head. “Gold-digger”. She was only ever after Bill’s money. He was a sitting duck, really, once she’d got her claws into him. Bill was so lonely after Valerie died. Cancer it was. Her last couple of years weren’t much fun. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Bill had married soon after that, you know, kind of on the rebound after Valerie’s death. There were plenty of women in Fethering who would have been glad to have him. Didn’t talk a lot, but he was a really kind man, not many like him around.’

Jude wondered for a moment whether Frankie herself might have been one of the women who ‘would have been glad to have him’. She spoke with definite fondness. Maybe that might explain her violent antipathy to Malee. Or maybe Jude was reading too much into the situation.