‘What do you want to know?’ she says.

‘Did she kill Jonathan?’ he asks.

She moves closer to him, her bum hovering over his legs as she gyrates. ‘If she did, she hasn’t told me.’ She glances over her shoulder, catches his disbelieving expression. ‘I don’t know, honestly I don’t. But is she capable of it? Probably, yes.’

Liv turns to face him, then sits on his lap, straddling him. She’s very close. He can feel the warmth of her body, smell her perfume. ‘When we were teenagers, there was this guy. She wanted him to take her to some party, but he had a girlfriend, and turned her down flat.’ She’s still swaying on his lap, and Robin’s finding it hard to concentrate, his face near her breasts. ‘And then the day before, the girlfriend gets sick. Proper vomiting. Had to be taken to hospital. She was okay in the end but turns out she was poisoned.’

‘And it was Amy?’

‘She didn’t admit it, but I thought so, yes. I was just in college, so she must have been about fifteen. And if she could do something like that then…’

She leaves the words unsaid; Robin knows what she’s implying.

‘Then help us, Liv, please. Help us find something so we can charge her.’

He can see her thinking. Then she says: ‘The life insurance. It’s a lot. I saw the paperwork for it in her kitchen. If it’s a motive you want, you’ve got it.’

‘We looked. We couldn’t find it.’

‘Try her wardrobe, it’s probably got a false bottom. Mum used to do the same.’

But Robin knows they’re short of time. The SOCOs will be out of the house by now; Amy Miller will have been released.

‘Get it for us,’ he begs.

‘No, Robin.’ She shakes her head, then glances through the doorway. She moves again, in a slow sway, her hair falling over his face. He meets her eyes, noticing the curve of her breast, the feeling of her sitting on his lap, moving closer.

‘Please,’ he whispers.

‘She’s my sister,’ Liv says. Her face is almost next to his, barely centimetres away. ‘She may be nuts, but she’s all I have.’

And then she leans down and kisses him.

‘Oi!’ Loud words are shouted from the doorway, and Robin feels hard hands on his arms. Liv jumps away as a large, meaty bouncer hauls him off the chair. ‘No touching the girls,’ the bouncer shouts.

Robin glances back. Liv’s standing in the room, hands on hips, smiling. It was deliberate, the kiss; she knew he’d get dragged away.

‘Okay, okay,’ he says, his hands raised above his head in surrender.

The bouncer propels him towards a side door. ‘Out!’ he hollers, and Robin goes without protest, the bouncer following close behind. Then he hears a yell from behind them.