‘Ah. Case proved then. Why would Malee want to take evening classes in car maintenance except to learn how to sabotage a Triumph Tr6 so that its gearbox falls and kills her husband?’

‘I can think of a good few reasons.’

‘So can I. But we are perhaps a little less blinkered than the Crown and Anchor Major Incident Team. So far as they’re concerned, Malee did it and should be instantly arrested. End of story.’

‘Hm.’ Carole took a sip of her Americano. It had gone cold during their recent conversation. ‘And the Crown and Anchor aren’t considering any other suspects?’

‘Should they be? You probably know more than I do. You were actually at Shefford’s when it happened. Anyone else you’d put in the frame?’

‘Well … Don’t let this go any further …’ Even as she said the words, she knew it was a pretty stupid thing to say in Fethering. But that didn’t stop her continuing. ‘Billy’s wife Shannon is very protective of him. She’d have the same motives as he would, I suppose, protecting their inheritance. And the garage had been the centre of his life right through their marriage, so she might have been round there enough to have picked up some mechanical knowledge.’

‘Possible,’ said Adrian.

‘Then again, Frankie – you know, in the office at Shefford’s – she must have absorbed quite a lot of mechanical knowhow over the years she’s been there.’

‘Mm.’

‘And Jude sort of wondered whether Frankie might have been holding a candle for Bill for some years and had her nose put out of joint when he married someone else.’

‘Does she have any proof for that?’

‘No. But Jude’s a pretty shrewd judge of people.’ Carole wondered why she was praising her neighbour to Adrian. And then again, why it should worry her that she was praising her neighbour to Adrian?

‘So …’ he asked, ‘is that it? Or are there any other suspects?’

Carole was about to mention Tom Kendrick, the fact that he was the owner of the Triumph Tr6 and the fact that there had been bad blood between him and Bill Shefford.

But, for some reason, she didn’t.

When, later that day, Carole went through the potential suspects with Jude, she didn’t mention that it was the second time she had done the exercise. A slight element of mystery about her relationship with Adrian Greenford still seemed appropriate. This time she did, however, add Tom Kendrick’s name to the list.

‘Yes,’ said Jude thoughtfully. ‘I must somehow arrange to talk to him again.’

‘What – so you’ve changed your mind about his condition, have you? Think he does need healing, after all?’