Luke drank again then replaced the cup and Clare saw his hand was shaking. ‘Take your time, Mr Gasparini,’ she said.

‘Luke’s fine,’ he said. ‘Just Luke.’ Then he went on. ‘I booked it for three nights. I thought we needed that. Gaby began to relax; and we talked properly for the first time since Russell’s death.’

‘What did you talk about?’

He looked surprised. ‘Russell, of course. How we were both going to miss him. Then I said I wondered if we’d ever find out who’d shot him.’ He stopped for a minute and took another drink. ‘Gaby… she said it didn’t much matter. That finding out wouldn’t bring him back.’ He shrugged. ‘She’s right about that. I was surprised, though.’

‘And after that?’

‘Nothing, really. We were both exhausted so we went to bed. I don’t know if it was the relief of being on our own, or knowing we weren’t going back to work, but I honestly can’t remember when I’ve had such a sound sleep. It was exactly what we needed.’

He broke off for a moment then he took a deep breath and went on. ‘Next morning we had breakfast. The sun was out and we took our coffees into the garden. Then Gaby’s phone rang. I thought it must be work so I wandered off while she took the call.’ His brow creased. ‘It wasn’t a long call and when it finished she seemed so excited. I asked if it was something about work and she said No, it wasn’t work but she had a surprise for me – a really wonderful surprise.’

Clare and Chris exchanged glances but said nothing.

Luke’s shoulders dropped and he shook his head. ‘I thought…’

When he didn’t continue Clare said, ‘What did you think?’

He exhaled heavily. ‘I thought maybe Gaby was going to tell me she was pregnant. It’s something we’ve both pretty much given up on. I mean, we have our daughter and we love her to bits. But we’d always wanted another child. Stupidly, I thought that might be what she was going to say.’ He shook his head.

‘And did she?’ Clare asked. ‘Is that what she said?’

‘No.’ His voice was barely a whisper. Then he looked at Clare. ‘You have to understand, Inspector, I knew nothing about this.’ He turned to his solicitor. ‘Nothing at all.’

Clare nodded. ‘I understand. Just take your time.’