‘Oh, this won’t have anything to do with him.’ The woman shook her head. ‘Val was the landlady of the pub for years, but she’s long gone, and he left Mardle when he was still a boy.’ She smiled. ‘Sorry, pet, you’re not interested in me wittering on. How can I help?’

‘There’s been another incident,’ he said.

‘Oh?’ Eyes wide with curiosity.

‘Dee Robson. She lives on the top floor. Do you know her?’

‘Oh, that one! Peggy Jamieson lives next door, and her life’s a misery. Banging up and down the stairs at all hours. Men knocking. She told the police and the council, but nothing happened.’ She paused. ‘Not Dee’s fault, mind.’ She tapped the side of her head. ‘I knew her mam and she was a bit daft too, like. Though not as bad as Dee.’ A thoughtful pause. ‘They used to lock up people like that in asylums.’

Ashworth couldn’t tell if she approved or disapproved of the notion.

‘Dee’s dead,’ Ashworth said. ‘We think she died in her flat yesterday. Did you hear or see anything unusual?’

The woman shook her head regretfully. ‘I was out all day yesterday. My daughter took me back to hers for my dinner.’

He stayed for a few more minutes and had another slice of cake. Vera wasn’t the only one with compassion.

The next inhabited flat was on the second floor. A woman in her early thirties with a toddler clinging to her legs. She didn’t ask him in.

‘I’ve already talked to you lot about the woman that was stabbed on the Metro.’

‘Did you know Margaret Krukowski?’

‘Nah, but when they showed me her picture I realized I’d bumped into her on the stairs a couple of times. She was on her way to the flat upstairs. I told them that.’ The toddler began to grizzle.

‘Perhaps we could go in and talk about it,’ Joe said. ‘We don’t want the bairn to get cold.’

The flat was exactly the same in layout as Dee’s, but there was carpet on the floor and it was furnished. In the living room there was a box of brightly coloured plastic toys. The television was on. CBeebies. The woman was called Jodie and she didn’t like cops.

‘You’re here on your own with the bairn?’

‘Only since you put my man inside.’

Here, then, he was unlikely to be offered tea and cake. ‘Dee Robson . . .’

‘What about her?’ Jodie was very thin, with a ratty face and narrow eyes.

‘She’s a neighbour.’

‘The social set her up in that flat upstairs. All the old biddies in the block want her out.’ She put the child on the floor and he pulled a train from the toy box.

‘And you?’

She shrugged. ‘Live and let live.’

‘You weren’t worried that she was attracting unsuitable men into the flats?’