Steph shrugs. ‘Would have been a difficult decision, in terms of cause of death. His injuries from the crash were extensive. If the fire hadn’t started, I don’t think he would have lived long after.’ She turns, jogging on the spot for a moment. ‘The pathologist’s call: he went one way, I’d go another. Doesn’t make too much difference at the end of the day. The guy’s still dead; nothing would have saved him.’

Freya watches Steph jog off down the road, then closes the door, simultaneously glad of her cosy central heating while feeling guilty for making no effort to do any exercise whatsoever. She hears her phone ring from the living room, and goes to answer it.

‘West? Anything?’ DCI Baker asks, without greeting.

‘It’s Sunday, guv.’

‘And you’re not working?’ Baker hears the pause. ‘As I thought. So, out with it.’

Freya glances at the file. ‘Nothing suspicious, as far as I can tell. No evidence of suicide. Cause of death confirmed to be from the accident.’

‘Had he been drinking?’

‘Dr Harper’s still waiting on results, but I can’t find any evidence of it.’

Baker notices the reluctance in her voice. ‘So why your hesitation?’ he asks.

Freya’s not sure. Maybe it’s that her cop nature wants to see the crime in everything, so when there’s nothing, she can’t help looking for more.

‘Why did you ask me to look into this? What information was the coroner sent?’ she asks.

‘Not much, to be honest,’ Baker replies. ‘An anonymous email from someone who knew him from AA. Who said that there was no way he’d been drinking, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have drunk Jack Daniel’s.’

‘Not exactly concrete evidence,’ Freya says, confused.

‘No,’ Baker agrees. ‘But she threatened to go to the press, tell them what she knew.’

‘It’s hardly a front-page story.’

‘And if the coroner wasn’t such a cautious so-and-so, we wouldn’t have bothered. But he was worried, so here we are. Have you found anything new?’

‘Well, the wife agrees, says he wasn’t drinking—’

‘As she would.’

‘Yes. And I can’t trace the witnesses in the petrol station—’

‘There were witnesses at a petrol station?’

‘Stevens came in that night, bought fuel. He spoke to someone—’

‘Who?’

‘No idea.’ Freya’s never worked with Neal Baker before. He has a different style to Butler – more directive, questions firing at her before she has time to think.

‘And no mechanical reason for the accident?’

‘No. Just human error, no more than that.’