‘Hmm,’ said Larssen, as if this was a highly unsatisfactory answer. ‘It’s more likely that he didn’t arrest you because he wanted to get your unguarded reaction.’

‘Well, it worked.’

‘But it also means he’ll struggle, on legal grounds, to use the answers you gave earlier to implicate you in any crime.’

‘If we end up in court, you mean?’

‘Yes. If we end up in court.’

‘If that’s the good news, what’s the bad news?’

‘The altercation between you and Mr Delaney on Thursday is . . . unfortunate.’

‘That’s one way of putting it.’

‘Do you have any idea how his car came to be dumped and set on fire, or why there was blood found on the seat?’

‘No, but I can make a pretty good educated guess.’

He nodded, made a note on his pad with the expensive fountain pen.

‘Let’s avoid guesswork, Joe. On the face of it, your wife’s relationship with Mr Delaney is interesting to the police because it puts you and him on something of a collision course. It’s motive. You can see that, can’t you?’

‘Can I ask you a question, Peter?’

‘Certainly.’

‘Do you believe me?’

‘If you say you’re not guilty, that’s all I need to know.’

‘But do you think I did this? That I hurt Ben?’

‘I didn’t say that. You seem like a good chap to me, but we have to deal with the situation we face, and study it piece by piece. Break it down, piece by piece. That’s how we win cases and it’s why most of our clients walk out of court with a smile on their face. Everything else is a distraction.’

‘You see that Ben’s trying to set me up, don’t you? I’ve taken Mel away from him, he’s in love with her and he’s mad and egotistical and obsessed to the point that he can’t bear to lose her.’ My hands were fists on the table between us, my heart thumping hard. ‘He’s trying everything to land me in it. Do you see?’

‘He certainly sounds like a dangerous individual.’

‘He’s nuts. Crazy. But he won’t break my family up. Never.’

Larssen handed me a business card with his numbers on it.

‘We’ve done what we can for now. To a certain extent we have to see what the police do next, but the most important thing is that you do not, under any circumstances, speak to DCI Naylor again without me being present. Give me a call on the mobile and I will be there as quickly as I can. And let me know when Mr Delaney contacts you next, whether by phone, email, social media, anything at all.’

‘Everything’s just happened so fast, it’s a struggle to get my head around it.’