“What does that involve?”

Again she smiled and answered the unspoken question. “Nothing smutty,” she said. “ Nothing like that. Sometimes he likes me to go to dinner with him and his clients. That’s all. He never married. In the office I’m more like a personal secretary.”

“Did Greg ever ask you about your work?” George asked.

Her mood changed suddenly, and she looked uncertain and resentful. “Who are you?” she demanded. “Why are you asking all these questions? You must be a policeman.”

“No,” he said. “ I promise I’m not a policeman. I’ve been asked by Greg’s parents to find out why he died and who killed him.”

She accepted his explanation immediately and looked up at him with fresh tears. “He never got on with his parents. He said they crowded him. I told him he was lucky to have a mum and dad who bothered about him.”

“You can understand why they’re so upset,” George said, playing on her sentiment. “ They loved Greg as much as you did.”

“Yes,” she said. “It must be dreadful for them.”

“Greg did talk to you about your work, didn’t he?” George asked gently. “ Especially about the Rashwood Park complex?”

“He said he couldn’t understand how they came to get planning permission to build on the site,” she said. “ He used to go birdwatching in the park, and he said the lake was brilliant in the winter.” She looked up apologetically. “ He told me what birds he’d seen there,” she said, “but I never could remember their names. I think it made him cross because I couldn’t get more interested.”

“So he was surprised when Squirrel developed Rashwood Park?” George said, prompting her, trying to bring her back to the subject, wishing he had Molly’s patience for this sort of interview.

“There were flowers, too,” she said. “Rare flowers.”

“Did he ask you to try to find out how the company gained planning permission?” George asked.

She nodded. “At first he thought Mr. Barnes must have bribed some of the councillors on the planning committee,” she said, “ but I brought home a report from the Nature Conservancy Council which said that there were no rare species in the site, and there was no reason to give it special protection.”

So then George knew how Greg Franks and Duncan James were connected. Barnes had not bribed the councillors on Somerset’s planning committees, but the apparently incorruptible regional officer of the Nature Conservancy Council had. Greg had found out and had blackmailed Duncan James. The cheque in the letter Mrs. Franks had opened was one payment. The Rashwood brochure sent to Cranmers was an indication that another was required. Presumably Duncan had phoned the number on the brochure and had been summoned to Cornwall.

Vicky got up and disappeared into a bedroom. When she returned, her face had been washed and more makeup applied.