‘He was asking questions,’ Morgan said. ‘About Jenny Lister and her part in the Elias Jones case. “You knew her, man. What was she like? Was she as prim and self-righteous as the papers made out?” It was rather distasteful actually. I’d have thought Danny would be above that sort of gossip.’

‘Did Danny tell you that he’d met Jenny? That Jenny’s daughter had once been the love of his life. That he blamed Jenny for splitting them up?’ Vera hadn’t put this thought into words before, but she was sure it was true. And it gave Danny a motive for murder.

‘No,’ Morgan said. ‘He didn’t tell me any of that.’ His voice was quiet and measured.

‘It doesn’t surprise you, though!’

‘No, it doesn’t surprise me. The interest he was taking in the Jenny Lister murder sounded like more than voyeuristic prurience. It seemed to me that it was personal.’

‘Do you think he killed her?’

There was a pause. Morgan looked at her, said nothing.

‘It must have crossed your mind. All those questions.’ Vera waited again for an answer. At last it came.

‘He could have done,’ Morgan said. ‘Yeah, he was so wound up that he could have done.’

But you would say that, Vera thought. If you were the murderer, what else would you say?

Morgan looked around the room, like some performer, Vera thought, waiting for applause after a particularly dramatic moment. Well, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. She continued the interview in the same tone as before. ‘Do you remember anything else about your conversation with Danny the day before he died?’

Morgan frowned. ‘He went on about friendship. About how important our friendship was to him. He’d met lots of people in Bristol, but no one he could really be himself with. There was so much posing at university. I suppose I should have felt flattered, but by then I was just keen to get home and didn’t even take in everything he said. I’m afraid I cut him off and told him I had to rush. I feel very bad about that now. If I’d listened more carefully, been a true friend, perhaps his death could have been avoided.’

Vera allowed him a moment of self-satisfied and mournful reflection before continuing. ‘You didn’t tell us you and Freya were in the hotel the morning Jenny Lister was strangled.’

It was the last thing he was expecting and the look on his face made her feel like singing.

She went on, ‘I know you have a very low opinion of the police, Mr Morgan, but you must have realized that we’d find out.’

‘Freya attended one of the exercise classes for pregnant women.’

‘Very nice.’ She looked at him, waiting for him to continue, eventually running out of patience. ‘And you, Mr Morgan? What were you up to?’