‘The Eliots,’ she said as if she hadn’t left the room. ‘Not lords of the manor. No real land and no old money. Not any more. Local, you can tell that by the name. One of the Border Reiver clans, the Eliots. But seems to me Christopher Eliot’s family would have been tradespeople or farmers, not aristocracy. Veronica’s a bit different, though. She likes to play the role of lady. Status is important to her. And once her granddad did have a grand house, servants and a big estate. It’s still rotting down by the river, and that’s odd too. Worth following up. Does she care enough about her good name to kill? I’m not sure, but people have committed murder for less.’

She returned to her seat by the fire and Ashworth followed.

‘Our Veronica’s hiding something,’ Vera said. ‘But that doesn’t make her a killer. She could have nicked a few quid from WI funds and be shitting herself that we’ll find out. I’d love to know why she’s become so pally with Connie Masters all of a sudden. I really don’t get what’s going on there. Can’t see that there’d be any connection with Danny Shaw, though, unless she’d chosen him for her toy boy.’

‘Shaw could have been the man who called at Connie’s cottage the afternoon of the murder.’

‘So he could.’ Mocking him gently, because of course she’d already thought of that.

‘Is that the plan for the morning? Head off for Barnard Bridge. Show Connie Danny Shaw’s photo, and chat to Veronica.’

‘Aye.’ Vera yawned. ‘That’ll do for a start. And if we can get a recent photo of Morgan with his hair shaved off, get Connie to look at that too.’ She looked over at him. ‘Are you planning on staying all night? I don’t know about you, but I need my beauty sleep. And your missus will have forgotten what you look like. Off you go.’

Joe was astonished. Usually Vera was desperate to keep him there until the early hours. Many times she’d offered him the bed in her spare room: Don’t be a spoilsport, Joey lad. Have a few drinks and keep an old lady company. ‘We haven’t talked about Elias Jones,’ he said.

‘Nor we haven’t.’ She grinned at him. ‘Now what’s that saying?’ She appeared to drag the phrase from her memory. ‘The elephant in the room. That’s what Elias Jones is in this case. We all know he’s there, but we’ve stopped talking about him.’