‘What we need is a motive to narrow the field a bit. Any suggestions? I suppose we can discount robbery, since there was no attempt to enter the house.’

‘Money could still be a motive,’ said Hitchens. ‘If there’s a will –’

‘There doesn’t seem to be one in the house. It’s possible there’s a solicitor somewhere with a will, but the London firm who handled the house purchase say they have no knowledge of it.’

Fry smiled. ‘If there’s someone out there who planned this murder in order to inherit Rose Shepherd’s money, they’ll come forward eventually, won’t they?’

‘Eventually? That won’t do. We need to be able to show some progress on this enquiry pretty quickly,’ snapped Kessen.

‘OK, what other motives might we consider?’

‘Jealousy? Revenge? Perhaps Rose Shepherd was a threat to someone?’ suggested Fry.

‘Jealousy requires some kind of close personal relationship,’ said Hitchens. ‘Miss Shepherd doesn’t seem to have had any of those. Not recently, anyway.’

‘What about this Eric Grice?’

‘Grice, the handyman? What about him?’

‘He seems to be the only person who was allowed into Bain House, the only one who had any contact with Miss Shepherd. I wonder if there was more to their relationship than a bit of odd-jobbing.’

‘Well, they were both unmarried, so that shouldn’t have been a problem. A bit on the mature side, perhaps, but I’m told that doesn’t necessarily make any difference.’

‘Judging by her obsession with keeping herself to herself, she would probably have rejected any attempts at intimacy out of hand. For all we know of Grice, he might not be the type to take that calmly,’ said Fry.

‘But if he crossed the line in some way, Miss Shepherd would have kicked him out, surely. Yet she let him keep coming to the house, didn’t she?’

‘Did she? How do we know that?’

‘Only from Grice himself,’ admitted Cooper.

‘When does he say he was last at Bain House?’

‘Three weeks ago, to clear the guttering and sweep up dead leaves.’

‘Well, we know for a fact that he had contact with Rose Shepherd, which puts him in a very small minority for now. And he must have known which room she slept in. What sort of vehicle does he drive?’ said Hitchens.

‘He has an old Land Rover that he carries his tools around in.’

‘Four-wheel drive?’

‘Of course. But Grice says he was always restricted to certain parts of the house. It sounded convincing,’ said Cooper.

‘Maybe,’ said Fry. ‘But that just means he was limited to one area per visit. How many times did he go to Bain House?’

‘Five or six times, he says.’

‘Enough opportunity to work his way through the whole house?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Besides, we only have his word for how restricted his movements were. Miss Shepherd isn’t available to confirm his story.’