The phone rang in the station room at Parkside police station and Sergeant Elly Hale picked it up. After listening to the officer, who was calling from the front desk, she spoke.

‘Yes, patch it through.’ She covered the mouthpiece with her hand and signalled to Palmer. ‘Get the DCI. Kim Geller wants to talk to him.’

Palmer jumped up from his desk and knocked on his boss’s door.

‘Sir, Kim Geller is on the phone.’ Barrett jumped to attention and shot off towards the sergeant who was still holding the phone.

‘Mrs Geller. Thank you for getting in touch. I’m DCI Barrett and I’m in charge of the investigation into Toni Jones’ murder.’

‘Yes, hi. My husband told me you came to the house.’

‘Indeed.’ Barrett had the mental image of her little boy bashing his drum, and tried to push it out of his mind.

‘I’d like to talk to you about the night Toni was murdered. We need some information. Would you mind if I came over with a colleague and took a statement?’

‘Actually, I’d rather come to you. Don’t want the neighbours asking questions,’ she chuckled.

‘Right. This is an urgent matter, are you able to come this evening?’ Barrett was not going to take no for an answer.

‘Let me just settle my kids and then I’ll come. Is that OK?’

‘Yes, but while I have you on the phone, would you mind giving me a list of all the people who attended the book club?’

‘Oh, yeah. Sure. There was nine of us, I think …’ Kim counted on her fingers. ‘Yeah, nine including Toni.’

‘Their names, please,’ Barrett encouraged, gritting his teeth.

‘Right, it was at Marion’s house. Marion Bolton. I was there …’ Barrett held his breath. This wasn’t going at the speed he would have liked. ‘Then there was Barbara Lipton, Amy Martin, Maggie Barnsdale, Pauline Robinson, Shirley Grubb and Janet Cox.’

Barrett scribbled down the names and waved the piece of paper across the room at Palmer.

‘That’s very helpful, Mrs Geller.’

‘I’ll get the kids down and then I’ll come over.’

‘Thank you. Please ask for DCI Barrett at the front desk when you arrive.’

‘Will do,’ she said in a singsong voice before hanging up the phone.

‘I want you to track down Marion Bolton first. She hosted the book club. We need to speak to her.’ Barrett had slammed down the phone and was barking orders at Palmer. ‘Mrs Geller is going to come to the station later. In the meantime, get on with this.’ He thrust the piece of paper listing the book group members’ names at Palmer.

After two cups of coffee, Kim got in a taxi and went to Parkside police station. As she stepped out of the silver Mercedes she felt her stomach knot. She’d never had to give a statement before and she felt nervous.