“Phew!” Cordelia sighed. “So he’s the man you saw arguing with Lorna. You sure as hell are good value for money. Nobody would guess you hadn’t planned any of that. It must have been a hell of a shock when you recognized him. Do you normally eat villains for breakfast?”

“Come on, Cordelia. He told us hardly anything we didn’t already know. He’s only scared about more police inquiries and bad publicity. It’s only a guess, but I think he might be in deep water financially. A lot of small and medium-sized builders are really strapped for cash now. And he didn’t get that squash court contract. If that’s the case, he would badly need the playing fields project. He’s a worried man, but I’m not sure that’s because he’s a murderer.”

“By the way,” said Cordelia, “why were you so insistent about whether he’d seen Sarah?”

“Don’t really know. It just seemed important. Journalist’s nose, I guess.”

Cordelia giggled. “That sounds like a particularly nasty complaint!”

“It leads to complications. Like broken legs. I’m told. Now . . . I want to check this so-called alibi of his. What time is it?”

“Just before two. We’d better get a move on if we’re going to see Paddy.”

“I’ll drop you back at the school and you can sort out some clothes for her, if you don’t mind. Then I can go into town and buy some sandwiches for us and some goodies and cigarettes for Paddy. And I want a good, large-scale map of the area. We’re going to have to do some checking out on Cartwright’s tale. It all sounds a bit too convenient to me.”

Half an hour later, they set off. Cordelia navigated them across country for fifteen miles, then they shot up the motorway. They turned off in the depths of rural Cheshire and drove down country lanes for a few miles. Lindsay finally pulled into a car park beside a high wall. The two women got out and looked around them doubtfully.

They walked across to a high, forbidding gate and rang a bell. A small door opened and a prison officer appeared. Through the gap, Lindsay spotted an Alsatian guard dog chained to a security booth, Cordelia explained who they were, and, after waiting for a couple of minutes while they were checked out, they were allowed in. Ahead lay twin inner rings of mesh fencing topped with ugly loops of barbed wire. Incongruously, this was succeeded by wide, beautifully trimmed lawns and flower beds, well stocked with mature rose bushes. Beyond that lay the red brick buildings, clean-cut functional, modern. They could have been offices, except for the barred windows and heavy double doors.