They all realized the implication of the words, but Vera didn’t pick up on it immediately. She was delighted, though, Ashworth could tell that. There was that shiver of anticipation, the sort she got when she was standing at the bar and he was getting in the first round. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you two would be best mates,’ Vera said, keeping it as calm as she could manage.

‘We haven’t been.’ Connie’s face seemed to close down and become expressionless. ‘Veronica was rather a bitch actually, as soon as she realized who I was. She made my life hell in the village with her gossip and her rumours.’

Joe could tell Vera didn’t really get the significance of what Connie was saying. Vera had always been an outsider: she was used to being considered the eccentric, the mad cop. It was only since she’d made pals with her druggie neighbours that she’d belonged to any sort of community. But Joe’s wife had found it a nightmare to fit into their estate when they’d first moved. A couple of nights she’d cried herself to sleep. Something about the babysitting circle and unused tokens, about the PTA committee. The small, unkind digs that stick in the brain and suck out all the confidence, made worse because the insults were so petty and she’d known she shouldn’t care.

‘What happened to change things between you and Veronica?’ he asked.

‘Jenny Lister’s death,’ Connie said. ‘Suddenly Veronica wanted my company. She invited me to lunch. Maybe it was just the voyeurism you get when things hit the papers. People seem attracted by that strange second-hand celebrity.’

‘And you asked her back here.’ Vera was grinning like a wolf. ‘Very neighbourly.’

‘It’s been lonely,’ Connie said. And Joe, catching the bleakness in her voice, understood how miserable she’d been, and thought how brave she’d been to hold things together. ‘Yeah, I asked her back. She was here when Alice found the bag.’

‘And what did she make of that?’ There was a glint in Vera’s eye: the wolf was sensing her prey.

‘She was anxious about Alice playing so close to the water,’ Connie replied. ‘Then later, when I said I was going to call the police, she said she’d go home, that she didn’t want to interfere. She’d only be in the way.’

‘Tactful.’ Vera nodded again. ‘It’s a real nuisance for us when folk hang around to watch the action.’

‘She offered to take Alice with her.’

‘Kind,’ Vera said. ‘Thoughtful.’ There was a pause. ‘I suppose you saw her coming. You’ve got a view down the track from the big house.’