Maisy gave him the same look that his wife had just before she’d packed her bags for the final time. That look said, ‘You are nothing to me.’ It was an interesting shift from the sweetness and charm with which she’d answered Pax Graham.

‘I can’t give you his name,’ she said, acid apparent below the superficial sugar of her voice. ‘My friends don’t like it when I give out information about the time I spend with them.’

Pax Graham sat back in his chair, giving Lively the smallest of nods. He could take it from there. Enough beating around the bush.

‘Any friend of mine would be happy to help me out when I needed it, so I’m not sure what the problem would be. If, on the other hand, we’re talking about clients who might not like their name taken in connection with yours because of the nature of your relationship, I could understand the reticence. Who were you with?’

‘Really, I’m not doing this. You said I was under no obligation to answer questions. I think in the circumstances, when I’m grieving, you might be more sensitive,’ she said, turning on a little sadness to water down the obvious irritability.

‘We need the name, I’m afraid,’ Graham confirmed. ‘It would avoid having to make this a more formal interview.’

‘Or what?’ Maisy asked. ‘I have an awful lot of friends, you know, and some of them wouldn’t like you asking me questions at all. Maybe I should make some calls.’

‘Maybe you should,’ Graham said. ‘Only then you’d have to explain the context and it would only be fair to explain that the person who killed Gilroy Western was a woman. We’ve also had confirmation in the last hour that a member of staff saw a female running away from Bruce Jenson’s care home room at about the same time he was killed.’

Maisy looked from Graham to Lively and back to Graham again.

‘Well, it wasn’t me. If you must know, I was tied up for half the fucking night. I had bruises on my wrists the next day to prove it. I hate that. Puts my other friends right off.’

‘So you won’t mind giving a DNA sample to exclude you from the investigation,’ Lively said. ‘But we still need the name of the man you were with. We’ll be discreet, provided we get information without a fight. Of course, if you don’t provide us with what we need, we might remember that all the gifts you receive are reportable in your tax returns. I’m guessing you don’t have a job and you’re not claiming benefits, so the taxman might have a few question about the income you use to pay your rent. They can go back an awful lot of years. It would be unfortunate …’