‘He just got on her nerves, I think.’ He lowered his voice. ‘They were arguing by the airlock one time and I heard her call him a two-faced little ponce . . . something like that. Mind you, everyone gets on Lauren’s nerves, don’t they?’

I saw Tony get up to fetch a glass of water from the jug at the serving hatch. I stood up and went across to get one myself.

‘Funny sort of time, isn’t it? A strange atmosphere, don’t you reckon?’

‘Same old, same old,’ Tony said.

‘Yeah, but now, I mean. After what happened to Kevin.’

He downed half a glassful, then stared at me. ‘I suppose.’

‘You must be feeling a bit bad, though.’

‘Must I?’

‘After that fight and everything. I mean, did you and him get the chance to make up before . . . ’

‘That ruck wasn’t my fault,’ he said. ‘The police were giving me grief about this the other day and I told them, it was nothing to do with me.’

‘Certainly looked like it from where I was standing.’

‘That’s bollocks. It had already kicked off when I got there. I was trying to break it up and someone threw a punch . . . can’t even remember who it was, now . . . I was just defending myself.’

He was starting to get a bit worked up, so I checked to see if Mia was watching, but she was deep in some conversation with George.

‘I’m not going to stand there and let myself get smacked, am I?’

‘Right,’ I said. It’s hard to take anything seriously, coming from a bloke who believes a demonic entity can disguise itself as a postcard, but it certainly seemed as though Tony was telling the truth. I felt a twinge of guilt because of what I’d told Seddon a few days before. ‘So, who did start it?’

‘Not really sure.’ Tony finished his water and examined the empty glass as though there might be something lurking at the bottom of it. ‘Lucy told me she thought maybe Kevin and Shaun were having a row and it got out of hand.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Lovers’ tiff or something.’

I’d check with Lucy. I’d never seen Kevin and Shaun exchange a cross word, so if that was what had started the big fight a few days before the murder it would be interesting to find out what the two of them had been arguing about.

‘It was well funny, though.’

‘What was?’

He jabbed a finger into my shoulder. ‘You. Standing on that chair and making a big speech.’

Suddenly I didn’t feel quite so guilty any more. I had half a mind to get on the phone to Seddon, tell him I had more information and drop Tony even further in it. Tell Seddon he’d confessed or something.

‘Laying down the law,’ Tony said.

Because I could, couldn’t I?