‘I’ve got my own flat,’ Jane said. ‘The women are usually pretty good at respecting my privacy. And I have friends in town – they put me up when I need a break or a bit of culture.’

But no family of your own? No partner? Vera would have asked, but he couldn’t bring himself to put the question.

‘You must have problems over the years,’ he said. ‘Abusive husbands. Dealers. Pimps. Coming here and causing trouble.’

‘All of those,’ she replied. ‘We’ve built up a very good relationship with the community police officers, who turn out to help when needed. But there’s been no hassle recently. And there was no reason why anyone would target Margaret. She was a volunteer and her style was unobtrusive. She befriended the women once they arrived here. She had nothing to do with persuading them to come in the first place.’

Joe drank his coffee. ‘I’ll need to talk to your residents. Margaret might have confided in them, told them if anything was worrying her.’ He looked up. ‘She didn’t mention anything of that sort to you?’

Jane shook her head. ‘I learned from the start that Margaret was very private. She didn’t talk about herself. If anything, I was the one who confided in her. I’ll miss her.’ She paused. ‘Though when she was last here she did say that she’d like a chat sometime, that she could use some advice. I was busy and asked if next week would do.’ The social worker looked up, horrified. ‘I should have made time for her. All those hours she gave to us and I couldn’t squeeze a few minutes from my schedule. But she seemed okay about the delay. At least, she said she was.’

‘And you have no idea what she was concerned about?’

Jane shook her head sadly. ‘Why don’t you come and meet the others. Margaret might have talked to one of them. It’s almost lunchtime and you can join us. I warn you that they’ll be extremely upset. As I said, Margaret was like a family member. More like a mother or a grandmother to them than a volunteer. You can be sure that none of our residents killed Margaret.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Joe said. ‘I can’t rule anyone out at this stage.’

She gave a sudden wide smile. ‘Not even me? Of course I appreciate the importance of an open mind, but really on this occasion it would be foolish to pursue that line of enquiry. As I said, none of our residents killed Margaret, Sergeant. The weather was so foul yesterday that nobody went out at all. They were here all afternoon. I can vouch for that.’ She looked up at Joe, challenging him to contradict her, but he said nothing.