It was always an odd thing, holding a suspect in custody. They were at once the enemy and within your care. The fact that Louise Reakes may have killed a man and then tried to hide it made Jonah feel no less concerned for her welfare than if she had done nothing wrong. She would clearly be having a hard time for the next few days, whatever happened.

He left the interview suite along with Patrick Moorcroft, allowing the solicitor to walk ahead of him. Neither of them spoke as they made their way across CID, but as Jonah held the door open for him, the solicitor turned briefly and said, ‘Niall may well regret his decision not to speak to her. If he does, would you be willing to grant him access?’

Jonah studied his expression, wondering if his question was down to his friendship with Niall, or reflected concern that Louise’s husband might undermine her defence.

‘I’d certainly be willing to consider it.’

‘Thank you,’ the solicitor said, and left.

Jojo gave Jonah her version of the third degree while they drove to dinner at Roy’s house. He’d had to push the timings back by an hour and a half, and felt lucky to be making it at all. Fortunately Roy and Sophie were unshakeably relaxed about that kind of thing, and Roy had even said cheerfully that it might mean the house ended up tidy before they arrived.

Jojo’s form of interrogation always started with, ‘Did you manage to arrest anyone today?’

‘No,’ Jonah replied. ‘Massive fail.’ He grinned at her. He’d stolen one of Jojo’s current favourite phrases, which she’d stolen from the younger climbers and a good portion of the people she followed on Twitter.

‘God. It’s a wonder they pay you at all, Copper Sheens.’ She shook her head, and started scrolling through radio stations out of a general disgust with his allegiance to Radio 2. ‘You said it was a murder?’

‘Yes. A stabbing.’

‘Young person or old?’

‘Young.’

‘That’s cruddy,’ Jojo said, more seriously.

‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘And it’s definitely more complex than a random on-street attack. The body was moved, by someone who may or may not have killed him.’ Which was as much as he could say to her about it, however greatly he trusted Jojo’s discretion.

She gave him a sidelong look. ‘Sounds like just your cup of tea.’

‘You may be right,’ he agreed.

They arrived a few minutes later in Lyndhurst, where Roy and Sophie had now bought themselves a fairly substantial marital home. The parking was alongside grass on an unlined, very rural-looking road. He took care not to let the tyre dip down off the tarmac. He’d made that mistake last time and then spent ten minutes getting it unstuck again.