“I didn’t see you, certainly,” said Lindsay. “But I imagine you know the school well enough both as a parent and as a builder to know how to find your way around without falling over the audience at a concert.”

“Point taken, young lady,” he replied. “As it happens, I do know the school. I’ve done most of the building jobs there in the last fifteen years. Now, let’s hear these questions.”

“I suppose the police have already asked you, so it shouldn’t be a problem to remember where you were on Saturday night between, say, six and eight-thirty.”

“I was out walking on the moors late Saturday afternoon till about half-past six. I had a drink in a pub down near the Roaches, those rocks on the Leek road. The pub’s called the Woolpack. Then I wandered over to the Stonemason’s Arms near Wincle. I had a few pints there and something to eat. I left there about nine. You can check with the landlady; she’ll probably remember—I’m a regular there.” He leaned forward again, looking smug. “The police have already checked me out. Not that they were at all suspicious of me; they were just going through the motions. Roy Dart is a friend of mine. He told me it was just routine.”

“Did you see Sarah at all on Saturday?” asked Lindsay.

“No. Why should I have? I wasn’t near the place all day.” He did not flinch at the lie. He kept his eyes fixed on Lindsay as she asked the next question.

“So you didn’t know she had a set-to with her friends about your bid to get your hands on the playing fields?”

“No, I didn’t. Not that it surprises me. Half those silly little girls at that school don’t know what it means to live in the real world. They occupy some cloud-cuckoo land, where everything will be all right because someone will always make it all right for them. So, of course, they turn on my Sarah when the usual magic doesn’t work.”

Cordelia leaned forward and asked, “You’re pretty sure about getting the land, aren’t you?”

“I am now,” he answered readily. “But don’t go reading too much into that. I was, anyway. This charade they’re putting on about raising the cash is just that—a charade. It would never have happened, take my word for it.”