‘Well, I wasn’t that fond of her either.’ Maggie adjusted her glasses, aware that the policemen might think she wasn’t a very forgiving person. ‘She was manipulative. Passive aggressive too. I wouldn’t have trusted her as far as I could throw her.’ Palmer had a mental image of Maggie lifting Janet over her head and tossing her into the water. It was ludicrous, but it remained in his mind nevertheless.

‘Is there any reason in particular that you came to that conclusion?’ Barrett asked, curiously.

‘You know what, I can’t put my finger on it. I’ve thought about it. I suppose it was to do with the way she behaved. She was hot one moment and cold the next. A bit like Toni, I suppose, but with Toni you always felt like maybe she had a reason for behaving how she did. Janet, well she jumped to conclusions about people and could be really quite mean.’

‘And when was the last time you saw her?’ Barrett repeated his question.

‘Oh, yes, it was on Saturday. We all met at Amy’s house after we heard what had happened to Toni.’

‘Whose idea was that?’ Palmer asked.

‘I think Marion was the one who rang round,’ Maggie said, trying to remember the sequence of events. ‘Pretty sure it was Marion, but Amy called me.’

‘And what did you talk about when you all met?’ The detectives were unaware that the gathering had taken place, and took a special interest in Maggie’s answer.

‘We just met to sort of ... console each other I suppose.’

‘But you say you weren’t particularly fond of Toni?’ Palmer’s eyes narrowed.

‘I wasn’t, but she was one of us in a way, and we’d only seen her a couple of days before.’ Maggie felt the pressure of the question weigh heavily on her.

‘I see.’ Barrett waited for her to continue.

‘Well, we met, and I brought some cakes,’ she pointed to the untouched chocolate sponge sitting in the middle of the table, ‘and we were just going to talk about it.’

‘Did everyone who attended the book club go to Amy’s house that day?’

‘Mostly, but not Pauline. She wasn’t there. Kim was late, as usual,’ Maggie rolled her eyes, ‘and everyone else came on time I think. There was,’ she uncrossed her legs and put her hands on her knees, ‘a bit of an argument.’

‘Between who?’ Barrett raised his eyebrows.