Taylor was on the phone, his office door ajar, and Ashworth waited for him to complete the call before tapping on the glass and walking in. The manager was frowning.

‘That was another cancellation,’ he said. ‘A conference booked in for next week. They said they couldn’t take the risk of bringing clients here. What’s wrong with them all? Do they think the murderer’s still here, prowling the corridors and waiting to get them?’

‘Maybe not.’ Ashworth took a seat. ‘But they ought to know you’ve got a petty thief causing problems. Why didn’t you tell me about the stealing?’

‘You can’t think that’s relevant to the killing.’ Taylor fiddled with the knot of his tie, looked out of the window, refused to catch Ashworth’s eye.

‘That’s not for you to judge. I need to know what’s been going on here.’

‘A few things had gone missing.’ Today Taylor seemed to have lost his boyish energy. He was tired, washed-out. Were the cares of management finally getting to him? ‘Mostly from the staffroom. It happens. I’m on top of it.’

‘What are you doing to stop it?’ Taylor didn’t answer and Ashworth continued: ‘So you were just hoping the problem would go away?’

‘Look, another few days and Louise, the manager, will be back from leave. She’s paid to deal with staff problems. Let her sort it out. I don’t have the authority to hire and fire.’

‘That’s not quite true, is it?’ Ashworth tried to sound sympathetic. ‘You hired Danny Shaw, and the thieving started with his arrival. Tricky for you when you don’t have any proof either way.’

‘That was a temporary appointment in an emergency.’ Taylor was starting to get rattled – not, Ashworth thought, because of these questions, but because he knew he’d have to justify himself to his boss when she returned. ‘Danny goes back to university in less than a week.’

‘And you don’t want to upset his mum,’ Ashworth said. ‘Seemed like a strong woman. I wouldn’t want to cross her.’ And that was true enough, he thought, remembering dark-haired Karen with the quick tongue and the angry eyes.

They sat for a moment in silence.

‘You do see how important it could be?’ Ashworth said at last. ‘If Jenny caught someone stealing, they could have killed her to shut her up.’

‘You wouldn’t kill someone over something as small as that?’ Taylor was defensive now, flushed, a schoolboy being reprimanded for some foolishness, not having the sense just to sit and take it.

‘Oh, believe me,’ Ashworth said, ‘it happens.’ And into his mind came pathetic acts of violence: a broken glass slashing through a face to the bone because of an imagined insult, a woman beaten to death because her ironing hadn’t come up to scratch, a small boy drowned in a bath because his mother fancied herself in love. ‘So I need to know exactly what’s been going on here: what items have been taken and when. And I need you to tell me who you think is behind it.’