‘Tabitha Ibbotson,’ he nodded. ‘Of course.’180

‘You know her?’

‘Of her,’ he corrected. ‘I don’t think we’ve ever met. She’s a bit too traditional for my taste. But she’s a fine performer, for all that.’

‘You do know a woman was murdered in the house on Sunday, don’t you?’ The words burst out of her, with scarcely any conscious thought. It was as if she couldn’t hold them back any longer; that everything they’d said thus far was beside this main point. Clovis and his upcoming marriage no longer seemed to be the real motivating force behind this encounter.

‘Yes,’ he nodded, with unmistakeable eagerness. ‘I mentioned it yesterday on the phone, if you remember.’

‘So you did. Well it’s looming rather large in my mind, as you’d probably expect. I’m not sure I can think about much else, just at the moment.’

He gave her a long look that implied complete understanding. ‘That’s not surprising. So tell me.’

‘How come you don’t know? It must be the talk of the whole area.’

‘I know a couple of basic facts. I’d be very interested to hear the story from the inside, so to speak.’

She told him the whole story over the next five minutes, including the police interview and her frustration at not being able to talk to Gladwin. ‘But Barkley’s doing her best to keep in touch,’ she conceded. ‘You remember Barkley?’

‘Vividly.’

She laughed at that. ‘Well, that’s more or less it. I suppose I should be feeling a lot more scared than I am. Somehow, 181I can’t believe anybody’s after me. And after today, I think there’ll be a proper door at the back, which will help.’

‘So who are the main suspects, then?’

‘Well – on paper you could probably say I am. But luckily nobody takes that seriously. I ought to be thankful the media haven’t made more of the story – they’d be tearing me apart by now. Think how ghastly that would be! I suppose it’s because it’s August and they only want silly soft news. Plus, all this about the pangolins, of course. Nobody’s very interested in an unidentified woman getting killed in a sleepy Cotswold village.’

‘I heard about the pangolins,’ he said, with a serious expression. ‘Vile business!’

‘I know,’ she nodded. ‘Horrible for the poor things.’

‘And that’s just the tip of a loathsome iceberg.’ He took a last draught of his beer. ‘So I’m not lunching with a murderer, then?’

‘Wasn’t me, guv. I wouldn’t know where to squeeze to strangle somebody so quickly and quietly.’

‘Who says it was quick and quiet?’

‘It must have been. I was only out for twenty minutes at most. And if she’d screamed, even in Barnsley somebody would probably have come to investigate.’

‘Hm. Not too sure about that. People mind their own business around here, in my experience.’

‘That’s true. But the only possible explanation appears to be that somebody knew she was there, and just walked in and killed her when I was out. They must have been watching the house pretty closely to seize the moment like that.’182