‘Because … Look, Dina obviously seems like a threat to her,’ Niall said, trying for some sort of boys-together tone and not achieving it. ‘I knew Louise would tell me to stay away from her, which would have meant no job.’

‘So let me understand this,’ Jonah said. ‘You’ve been carrying on what might as well be an affair with a woman who has promised you a job on the basis that, what, you sleep with her after it’s all sorted? Is that it?’

‘No,’ Niall said, his expression pained. He clearly thought this unfair. ‘There’s never been any agreement of any kind. I never would.’

‘How did your marriage to your ex-wife end?’ Jonah asked.

‘I … She left me. For someone else.’ Niall Reakes looked, for some reason, more awkward admitting this than he had at any point so far.

‘Why would she now want you back so desperately that she’s found a way of offering you your dream job?’

‘She misses me. She realised it was a mistake breaking things off the moment I got married to Louise. But … but I love my wife. Very much.’

‘Despite the ease with which you believed she was having an affair,’ Jonah countered. ‘Despite your swift assumption that she is guilty of murder.’

‘I never assumed that!’ Niall said, looking angry. ‘I was effing furious with her because – because all of this is probably going to screw everything up.’ There was a pause, and he said in a more measured voice, ‘I lied to my company, and now I probably don’t have a new job to go to. It’s all been forced out into the open because – because Louise got pissed again.’

Jonah felt overwhelmingly tempted to ask whether Niall thought that might be karma, but instead he asked, ‘Where did you stay on Friday night?’

‘At the Gatwick Hilton.’

‘And you met Dina in your room?’

‘No. In the bar.’

‘Until what time?’

Niall considered for a moment, and then said, ‘A bit after twelve, I guess.’

‘What car do you drive?’

Niall looked wrong-footed. He sounded a little defensive as he said, ‘A Jaguar. An F-TYPE.’

‘That’s a nice sporty car,’ Jonah commented. ‘So you could easily have driven back home by, say, quarter to two. Probably even earlier if you’d floored it.’

‘I didn’t,’ Niall protested.

‘You didn’t arrive back and find your wife in bed with another man?’ Jonah asked. ‘You didn’t decide to do away with him and leave her comatose to wonder if she’d done it? I mean, it would be a pretty effective form of revenge, wouldn’t it?’

There was a silence for several seconds, and then Niall said, ‘I want my solicitor now.’

‘So I’ll call the ex-wife now?’ O’Malley asked, following Jonah back into CID.

‘Yes,’ Jonah said. ‘Though I strongly suspect that he’s made some sort of arrangement with her.’

‘You don’t believe him?’