‘I hope you haven’t.’ He gave a fluting, clearly fake laugh.

‘But somehow or other, a Rolex watch – worth nearly £30,000 – was stolen from this house during a burglary.’

‘Who says? The burglar? You surely don’t believe him over me?’

That was a valid point, but old Reg’s tone had turned waspish. It might be that he was outraged to now find himself, the victim of a crime, under questioning. On the other hand, it might be a defence mechanism because he actually felt guilty about something.

‘I must admit, Reg,’ she said, ‘the suspect I have in custody is probably a better and more experienced liar than you are. But that only makes me all the more curious. Where did you get this watch from, and why are you pretending it’s not yours?’

He worked his moist lips together. A sheen of sweat glimmered on his brow.

‘Reg … I’m sure you’re not going to get into trouble over this.’

He still made no answer.

‘But the best chance of us ensuring that … is if you tell me what’s actually happened.’

‘Can I …?’ he ventured ‘Can I ask you a question first?’

‘Go on.’

‘Is there such a thing as theft by finding?’

‘You’re saying you found it?’ It wasn’t completely implausible, Lucy supposed.

He didn’t say anything, just awaited a response to his own question.

‘It depends on the circumstances,’ she said.

‘It’s just that, a lad who was in the forces with me …’ He dabbed at his brow with a handkerchief. ‘He joined the police when we came home. And I remember him telling me once how he’d lifted this fella because he’d found a wallet with fifty nicker in it – that was a lot of money in those days, you know – and he took it straight to the pub, buying all his pals a drink.’

‘Was there a chequebook in the wallet, credit cards?’

‘I believe there was, yeah.’

‘In that case, the man did commit an offence,’ Lucy confirmed. ‘Because the real owner of the property was easily traceable. But I’m not sure that would be the same situation with this watch, Reg. There’s no name on it. There is a serial number if you look at it with a magnifying glass, but you couldn’t have been expected to know that. But you still need to have taken reasonable steps to find out who the owner was. And there’s one other problem …’

She pinioned him with her best interview room gaze.

‘I’ve checked with Rolex themselves, and the serial number on this particular watch has never been reported missing. And that means anywhere on earth. So, no one lost it, did they?’

‘But if I’d stolen it, wouldn’t it have been reported missing then, too?’ he said.

Lucy conceded that. At present, none of this made sense. But only Reg Murgatroyd could give any kind of answer.